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ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 


ENGLISH  EPISCOPAL 
PALACES 

(PROVINCE    OF   YORK) 


CONTRIBUTED   BY 

N.  NIEMEYER,   OXFORD   HONOURS   SCHOOL 

OF    MODERN    HISTORY;    MARION   WESTON; 

HENRY   GEE,    D.D.,    F.S.A. ;    M.    E.    SIMKINS ; 

ADA  RUSSELL,  M.A.  (Vict.) 

EDITED   BY 

R.    S.    RAIT 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW    YORK 

JAMES  POTT   &  COMPANY 

1911 


Printed  by  Ballantyne,  Hanson  <&•  Co. 
At  the  Ballantyne  Press,  Edinburgh 


(Uo^e  6^  ^^e  (B^i^ot-  of 


THIS  book  derives  its  inspiration  from  work 
done  for  the  "  Victoria  History  of  the  Coun- 
ties of  England,"  to  the  editor  of  which, 
Mr.  William  Page,  it  owes  much.  The  his- 
torical students,  who  for  the  last  few  years  have  been 
making  original  investigations  for  this  county  history, 
have,  from  time  to  time,  found  many  intimate  records 
of  the  life  of  the  past  for  which  the  plan  of  the 
"  History  "  allowed  no  place.  A  series  of  volumes, 
of  which  I  undertook  the  general  editorship,  was 
therefore  projected,  in  order  to  enable  this  interesting, 
and  often  picturesque,  material  to  be  used  to  good 
purpose.  The  series  includes  one  volume  on  the 
Episcopal  Palaces  of  the  Province  of  Canterbury,  one 
on  the  Episcopal  Palaces  of  the  Province  of  York,  and 
one  on  the  Royal  Palaces  of  England,  with  an  extra 
volume  on  the  Royal  Palaces  of  Scotland,  suggested 
by,  but  unconnected  with  the  work  done  for  the 
"  Victoria  History."  In  the  present  volume,  I  have 
been  fortunate  in  securing  the  co-operation  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Gee,  the  Master  of  University  College,  Durham, 


VI 


NOTE   BY   EDITOR   OF   THE   SERIES 


who  now  presides  over  the  ancient  episcopal  castle,  the 
history  of  which  he  here  narrates. 

For  the  selection  of  the  palaces  the  general  editor 
is  responsible :  the  opinions  expressed  are  those  of 
the  contributors  themselves. 

ROBERT   S.    RAIT. 

New  College,  Oxford, 
September  1 9 1 1 . 


Conknte 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER.       N.  Niemeyer,  Oxford  Honours 

School  of  Modern  History         i 


BISHOPTHORPE. 
DURHAM    CASTLE. 
AUCKLAND   CASTLE. 
ROSE   CASTLE. 


Marion  Weston       .         .  -32 

Henry  Gee,  D.D.,  F.S.A.  .     loi 

M.  E.  Simkins        .         .  .     201 

Ada  Russell,  M.A.  (Vict.)  .     235 


INDEX 


307 


^isi  of  JUmtvadone 


DURHAM     CASTLE    (tHE    BISHOP'S     PALACE 
1700)  ..... 

From  an  old  print  in  the  British  Museum 

THE   PALACE,    CHESTER       . 

THE   PALACE,    RIPON 

bishop's    court,    MANCHESTER 

BENWELL   TOWER,    NEWCASTLE  . 

BISHOPTHORPE    PALACE       . 

Engraved  by  H.   Winkles  from  a  drawing 
J.  P.  Neale 

BISHOPTHORPE    PALACE 

DURHAM    CASTLE        .... 

BISHOP   AUCKLAND    PALACE    IN    1 728 
From  an  engraving  by  S.  N.  Buck 

AUCKLAND    CASTLE    .... 

ROSE   CASTLE    IN    1 7 39 

From  an  engraving  by  S.  N.  Buck 

ROSE   CASTLE     


,    A.D 


by 


Frontispiece 

Facing  /.  12 
18 
24 

30 
48 

98 

168 


22« 
236 


^ntvo^uciov^   C^apkv 


THE  object  of  an  introduction  of  this  kind 
is  to  complete  the  work,  by  giving  some 
account  of  the  episcopal  palaces  which  are 
not  treated  separately.  Its  scope  is  there- 
fore a  wide  one,  and  episcopal  palaces  of  different 
types  will  be  dealt  with.  In  the  first  place,  there  are 
the  residences  belonging  to  York,  Durham,  Carlisle, 
Chester,  and  Sodor,  the  sees  of  old  foundation  ;  then 
follow  the  London  houses  of  these  sees ;  and,  last 
and  least  interesting,  the  palaces  of  the  modern  group 
of  bishoprics,  Ripon,  Manchester,  Liverpool,  New- 
castle, and  Wakefield. 

The  term  "  episcopal  palace,"  applies  properly  to 
the  bishop's  residence  in  his  cathedral  town,  so  that 
within  each  see  this  palace  must  be  given  precedence 
over  the  numerous  other  houses  which  the  peripatetic 
housekeeping  of  mediaeval  bishops  required.  At  York, 
however,  the  palace  lost  its  importance  comparatively 
early.  It  extended  along  the  whole  north  side  of 
the  Minster.  It  seems  most  probable  that  it  was 
begun  soon  after  the  Conquest  by  Archbishop  Thomas, 
once  a  clerk  of  William  the  Conqueror.  In  the 
twelfth  century  it  was  constructed  anew  by  Arch- 
bishop Roger  (i  154-81),  who  also  founded  the 
chapel  of  St.  Sepulchre  at  the  gates  of  the  palace. 
Little    further    detail    has    been    preserved    as    to    its 


2  EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

history.  It  was  enlarged  by  Walter  Gray  (1216-54), 
who  was  apparently  the  last  to  improve  it.  When 
Bishopthorpe  had  become  the  usual  residence  of  the 
archbishops,  York  Palace  grew  less  important.  The 
lead  was  stripped  from  its  roof;  and  Archbishop 
Young  (1560-68)  pulled  down  the  great  hall.  The 
remaining  rooms  were  let,  and  gradually  fell  into 
complete  ruin. 

The  castle  of  Cawood  eclipsed  York  Palace  in  the 
picturesqueness  of  its  history.  It  belonged  to  the  see 
from  the  tenth  century,  and  was  perhaps  an  occasional 
residence  of  the  archbishops  from  the  same  date.  The 
old  buildings  were  destroyed,  and  the  castle  built  by 
Archbishop  GifFard  (1266-76).  In  1255  the  arch- 
bishop entertained  Henry  III.  and  his  court  at  Cawood. 
About  fifty  years  later,  Edward  I.  borrowed  the  castle 
as  a  residence  for  Queen  Margaret,  his  second  wife, 
who  lived  here  during  the  summer  of  1300,  when  the 
king  was  in  Scotland.  It  is  also  probable  that  Queen 
Isabella,  wife  of  Edward  II.,  was  staying  at  Cawood 
during  the  siege  of  Berwick  in  13 19,  when  James 
Douglas  formed  a  plan  to  carry  her  off.  The  plan 
was  revealed  by  a  spy  captured  at  York,  and  the 
queen  was  hastily  escorted  by  the  archbishop  to 
Nottingham. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  century  Alexander  Neville 
(1374-88)  "repaired  the  castle  of  Cawood,  having 
various  buildings  in  it  reconstructed,  and  adding  new 
towers  "  ;  between  1408-23  Archbishop  Bowett  rebuilt 
the  hall  with  polished  stone  at  his  own  cost,  and  covered 
it  with  lead.  The  castle  must  have  been  a.  very  fine 
house,  for  in  1423  there  was  Bowett's  hall,  well 
furnished  with  tables  and  seats,  with  tablecloths, 
"qwyssyns,"  and  covers,  and  a  chamber,  similarly 
adorned  ;  a  chapel,  a  library  of  thirty-three  volumes, 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER 


pantry,  spicery,  livery,  plateroom,  kitchen,  brewhouse, 
bakehouse,  butlery,  and  stables. 

Cardinal  Kempe,  Bowett's  successor,  built  a  fine 
gallery,  and  added  to  the  offices ;  and  repairs  and 
additions  were  made  by  Archbishop  Savage  (150 1-7), 
When  he  died  in  the  castle,  he  left  the  following 
curious  collection  of  goods :  three  cupboards  worth 
13d,  ;  a  pot  standing  in  a  furnace,  3s.  8d. ;  stuff  in  the 
brewhouse  worth  103s.  ^d. ;  a  pair  of  organs  worth 
40s. ;  and  "  Potecary  stuff"  worth  £6,  i6s.  lod. 

The  connection  of  Wolsey  with  Cawood  will  be 
touched  upon  elsewhere.  Long  after  his  fall,  in 
September  1541,  the  king  stayed  at  Cawood  with 
Queen  Catharine  Howard,  and  a  young  gentleman 
of  the  chamber,  Thomas  Culpeper,  in  his  train  ;  an 
ominous  conjunction,  and  subsequently  fatal  to  the 
queen.  Privy  councils  were  held  there  on  the  4th 
and  5th  of  September,  and  futile  negotiations  were 
carried  on  for  a  meeting  between  Henry  and  James 
of  Scotland. 

The  Archbishop  of  York  was  bound  to  the  Church 
and  King's  party  in  the  early  seventeenth  century  ;  and 
in  1642  a  Royalist  garrison  was  thrown  into  the  castle. 
"  Mr.  Hotham,"  a  Parliamentary  commander,  marched 
out  of  Selby  to  Cawood,  "  the  proud  Archprelate  of 
York's  seat,  which  was  well  fortified,  fifty  musketeers 
being  within  it  under  a  Scottish  commander  .  .  .  and 
two  pieces  of  ordnance  which  they  also  had  within 
the  castle.  Yet  such  was  the  resolution  of  the  said 
Captain  Hotham  to  take  it  by  assault,  that  they 
within  yielded  the  castle  upon  quarter."  Never- 
theless, Cawood  was  retaken  by  the  Royalists,  who 
held  it  until  the  spring  of  1644,  when  "the  most 
noble  Lord  Fairfax  .  .  .  took  Cawood  Castle  .  .  . 
with   divers   of  the   Marquess   of   Newcastle's    forces 


4  EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

and  much  armes  and  ammunition  therein."  Two 
years  later,  the  castle  was  demolished,  under  an  Act 
of  Parliament. 

A  less  famous  house,  which  was  quite  as  frequently 
used  by  the  archbishops,  was  Southwell.  This  was 
apparently  used  as  a  residence  as  early  as  1050;  and 
the  archbishops  were  often  here  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  The  house  lay  on  the  south  side  of  the 
church,  and  the  ruins  were  traceable  in  1801.  It  was 
then  still  possible  to  show  that  the  rooms  of  state  lay 
to  the  east,  with  the  lodgings  on  the  south,  the  offices 
west,  and  the  chapel  and  great  hall  on  the  north. 
The  hall  must  have  been  that  built  by  Cardinal 
Kempe,  as  he  is  said  to  have  "  done  many  devices  of 
great  cost "  there,  and  an  angel  bearing  his  arms  was 
to  be  seen  on  the  east  end.  Soon  after  Kempe's  time, 
Archbishop  Rotheram  (1480- 1500)  built  new  kitchens 
at  Southwell,  and  the  house  was  in  constant  use  until 
it  was  surrendered  to  the  king  by  Archbishop  Lee  in 
November  1542.  The  possession  of  Southwell  was 
irksome  to  Queen  Mary,  and  in  1556  she  re-granted 
the  mansion-house  and  manor.  The  house  was  not  as 
much  used  after  this  time  as  it  had  been  formerly. 
Archbishop  Sandys  (1577-89)  was  the  last  to  in- 
habit it. 

The  case  of  York  illustrates  the  difficulty  of  limit- 
ing "episcopal  residences,"  when  the  archbishops 
moved  from  one  estate  to  another,  living  in  the  manor- 
houses  in  turn.  After  the  fourteenth  century  this 
mode  of  life  gave  way ;  and  although  it  is  easy  to 
show  that  many  places  were  once  archiepiscopal  resi- 
dences, it  is  not  so  easy  to  prove  the  date  at  which 
they  dropped  out  of  the  list,  and  relapsed  into  the 
condition  of  rural  manor-houses.  Thus  there  are 
many  houses  which  in   the  thirteenth  century  ranked 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER 


with  Southwell  and  Cawood,  without  having  much  of 
interest  in  their  later  history. 

Of  Scrooby,  in  Nottingham,  a  historian  wrote  in 
1677,  "  Here,  within  memory,  stood  a  very  fair  palace, 
a  far  greater  house  of  receit  and  a  better  seat  for  pro- 
vision than  Southwell.  ...  It  had  a  fair  park  belong- 
ing to  it." 

The  house  was  constantly  used  by  the  archbishops 
in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries.  It  was 
surrendered  to  Henry  VIII.  in  1545,  but  was  restored 
by  Edward  VI.  in  1553.  It  remained  in  use  until  the 
episcopate  of  Archbishop  Sandys  (1577-89),  who 
procured  a  lease  of  it  to  his  son,  Sir  Samuel  Sandys, 
"  since  which  (time)  the  house  hath  been  demolished 
almost  to  the  ground." 

Another  Nottinghamshire  house  was  Laneham, 
which  is  chiefly  known  from  the  archbishops'  letters 
of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries.  From 
these  it  is  clear  that  Laneham  was  a  not  infrequent 
residence ;  for  example,  Archbishop  Corbridge  was 
here  in  1300,  and  Archbishop  Greenfield  in  1306. 
In  later  records  of  the  see,  the  house  at  Laneham  does 
not  appear.  It  was  probably  abandoned  before  the 
end  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

There  was  a  manor-house  at  Otley,  which  was  used 
by  Archbishop  Gray  (1216-54)  early  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  Hardly  any  details  have  been  preserved  con- 
cerning the  house,  beyond  the  fact  that  it  stood  at  the 
north  end  of  the  town.  The  episcopal  registers  prove 
that  it  was  constantly  used  until  the  early  part  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  In  13 19,  when  the  Scots  were 
ravaging  Yorkshire,  about  the  time  of  the  Battle  of 
Mitton,  the  manor  of  Otley  was  devastated,  and  the 
house,  presumably,  destroyed.  It  must  have  been  rebuilt 
soon  after,  for  it  was  a  favourite  abode  of  Archbishop 


EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 


Bowett  (1408-23).  He  built  new  kitchens  here;  but 
his  building  was  almost  certainly  alteration,  and  not 
new  construction.  Bowett  spent  more  time  here  than 
his  predecessors  had  done,  and  there  is  a  curious  record 
of  his  connection  with  the  place  ;  among  the  desperate 
debts  due  to  him  at  his  death  was  ^^60  from  creditors 
on  the  lands  round  Otley.  From  this  time  the  mansion- 
house  seems  to  have  fallen  into  disuse. 

Not  all  the  manors  laid  waste  by  the  Scots  in  1319 
recovered  as  Otley  did.  Sherburn  was  not  so  favoured. 
The  manor-house  is  said  to  have  been  a  residence  of 
the  archbishops  since  the  tenth  century.  It  was  ruined 
by  the  Scots,  and  what  remained  of  the  building  was 
removed  by  Archbishop  Thoresby  (1352-73),  who  was 
elected  to  the  see  some  thirty-three  years  after  the 
devastation. 

Sherburn  was  probably  half  residence  and  half  farm, 
like  most  of  the  manor-houses  of  this  time.  Details 
of  its  management  in  1 304  show  that  it  was  a  purely 
agricultural  estate,  and  the  only  building  of  which 
particular  mention  is  made  is  the  ox  stall. 

It  is  probable  that  the  archbishops  had  a  house  at 
Ripon,  although  they  may  possibly  have  been  staying 
in  the  monastery  when  they  dated  their  correspondence 
from  Ripon.  Yet  there  is  this  to  be  said,  that  they 
owned  the  large  manor  of  Ripon,  and  as  they  kept 
a  resident  bailiff,  who  must  have  had  a  house,  they 
probably  lived  on  their  own  ground  when  they  came 
to  the  town.  In  1304  the  "bailiff's  room"  at  Ripon 
was  repaired,  and  this  implies  that  it  was  but  one  room 
in  the  manor-house. 

In  1 147  Archbishop  Henry  Murdac  attempted  to 
enter  York,  but  not  being  accepted  by  King  Stephen 
or  by  the  men  of  York,  was  obliged  to  retreat  to 
Ripon,  whence  he  anathematised  his  antagonists.    Arch- 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER 


bishop  Thomas  died  here  in  iioo;  and  both  these 
cases  point  to  an  archiepiscopal  residence.  On  the 
other  hand,  when  Walter  Gray  visited  Ripon,  his 
chief  act  was  to  "  enshrine  the  bones  of  St.  Wilfred 
worthily,"  and  this  brings  him  into  connection  with 
the  monastery.  In  1304  the  king's  justices  and  other 
"  men  of  the  king "  were  entertained  at  Ripon  by 
the  custodians  of  the  archbishop's  estate,  at  a  cost  of 
j^4,  9s,  I  ifd.  ;  possibly  they  were  staying  in  the  manor- 
house.  In  1319  the  Scots  devastated  the  manor  of 
Ripon,  but  the  house  must  have  been  rebuilt,  as  the 
place  was  frequently  visited  by  the  archbishops,  especi- 
ally by  William  Zouche,  whose  will  was  dated  here 
in  1349.  As  late  as  141 5  Archbishop  Bowett  was  in 
residence  at  Ripon. 

Another  manor  near  Ripon,  Bishop's  Monkton,  was 
occasionally  used  by  the  archbishops  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  but  its  claim  to  be  an  episcopal  residence  is 
of  the  slightest. 

Of  Bishop's  Wilton,  and  of  Bishop's  Burton  also, 
the  memorials  are  very  insufficient.  Both  seem  to  have 
been  used  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries, 
and  both  were  surrendered  to  Henry  VIII.  in  1542-43 
by  Bishop  Lee.  Moreover,  both  were  included  in  the 
re-grant  made  by  Queen  Mary  to  Archbishop  Heath. 
But  it  is  hardly  likely  that  an  archbishop  would  live 
in  these  rural  manor-houses  as  late  as  the  sixteenth 
century. 

There  remain  the  two  Gloucestershire  houses  of 
the  see,  Churchdown  and  Oddington.  They  were 
awarded  to  the  archbishop  after  long  litigation  in  the 
Curia  in  1151,  and  confirmed  to  him  by  the  Abbot  of 
Gloucester  in  11 57.  They  were  used  as  residences  in 
the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  when  there  was 
an   economic   reason   for  the  archbishop's  wanderings. 


8  EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

Archbishop  Gray  visited  both  houses,  and  so  did 
Archbishop  Walter  GifFard  as  late  as  1270.  There  is 
no  subsequent  notice  of  further  residence  in  either 
place.  Both  Churchdown  and  Oddington  were  sur- 
rendered with  other  manors  of  the  see  in  1542,  and 
were  restored  to  Archbishop  Heath  in  1556. 

Durham  Castle  was  the  episcopal  palace  of  the 
Bishops  of  Durham.  The  first  castle  was  built  by 
William  the  Conqueror,  who  must  have  given  it  into 
the  hands  of  Bishop  Walcher  almost  immediately. 
It  is,  however,  proposed  to  treat  of  this  episcopal 
stronghold  separately.  Of  the  lesser  palaces  of  the 
Bishops  of  Durham,  one  of  the  most  important  was 
Northallerton.  The  house  here  was  probably  visited 
by  the  bishops  at  intervals  from  the  beginning  of  the 
twelfth  century.  It  is  not  quite  clear,  however, 
whether  at  that  date  they  had  a  manor-house  as  well 
as  the  castle  of  Northallerton  ;  it  is  possible  that  the 
house  was  only  built  after  the  demolition  of  the  castle 
by  Henry  II.  The  bishops  certainly  resided  here  in 
the  thirteenth  century.  Allerton  was  the  scene  of 
some  very  aggressive  acts  on  their  part.  In  1300, 
when  the  bishop  and  the  prior  and  convent  of  Durham 
were  at  variance,  the  bishop,  who  was  then  at  Aller- 
ton, called  a  meeting  of  his  partisans  among  the 
monks.  He  ordered  them  to  elect  a  prior,  but  un- 
fortunately for  him,  they  did  not  agree  in  their  delibera- 
tions. He  was  not  to  be  beaten,  and  appointed  his  own 
candidate  to  be  prior  without  further  ado.  For  these 
arbitrary  proceedings  the  bishop  was  afterwards  sen- 
tenced to  pay  a  large  compensation.  In  1329  Allerton 
was  again  the  scene  of  an  ecclesiastical  combat.  The 
Archbishop  of  York  alleged  his  right  to  visit  it,  but 
the  bishop  moved  thither  with  an  armed  force,  ready 
to  kill  the  archbishop  if  he  came  there.     The  latter 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER 


preferred  spiritual  weapons,  and  excommunicated  the 
bishop ;  and  the  matter  was  only  ended  by  expensive 
proceedings. 

Northallerton  was  constantly  used  by  the  bishops 
throughout  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries. 
In  1503  Princess  Margaret  slept  here  on  her  way  to 
Durham  ;  and  Leland  describes  it  somewhat  later  as 
being  strong  of  building  and  well  moated.  By  1568 
it  had  become  ruinous,  and  was  characterised  by  a 
fantastic  traveller  as  "  a  receptacle  for  bats  and 
buzzards." 

The  bishops  had  another  palace  at  Hoveden  before 
the  end  of  the  twelfth  century.  When  William 
Longchamps  of  Ely  attacked  Hugh  de  Piuset  in  11 90, 
he  ordered  him  to  remain  at  Hoveden,  and  not  to  quit 
it  on  pain  of  treason.  De  Piuset  died  here  in  1195. 
The  house  was  much  used  during  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury;  and  in  the  fourteenth,  Bishop  Skirlaw  (1388- 
1405)  carried  out  improvements.  He  built  the  hall, 
and  parts  of  the  west  wing,  on  which  his  arms  were  to 
be  seen  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Cardinal  Langley 
(1406-37)  built  the  western  gates,  and  a  "beautiful 
lodge  adjoining,"  on  which  was  his  coat  of  arms; 
this  was  also  standing  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Leland  described  the  palace,  standing  near 
the  church  ;  "  the  first  part  at  the  centre  is  of  tymber, 
the  other  three  moste  of  stone,  part  of  brick."  It  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  used  by  the  bishops  after  the 
sixteenth  century. 

Bishop's  Middleham  (not  to  be  confused  with 
Middleham  Castle)  was  another  episcopal  seat.  It  is 
said  to  have  been  the  favourite  residence  of  Bishop 
Anthony  Bek  (1283-1310-1 1),  and  it  was  frequently 
visited  by  the  bishops  in  the  fourteenth  century. 
Bishop  Kellewe  died  in   "  the    lesser  chamber   in  his 


lo         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

manor  at  Middleham  "  in  1316  ;  about  the  same  time 
the  grounds  included  a  park,  garden,  and  orchard. 
The  bishops  ceased  to  live  here  probably  before  the 
fifteenth  century ;  and  the  house  fell  by  degrees  into 
complete  ruin.  In  1794  the  remains  of  the  walls  were 
visible,  and  the  ground  plan  of  a  square  tower  could 
be  traced  on  a  mound  to  the  south  of  the  town. 

Stockton  was  another  favourite  manor-house.  The 
Hall  at  Stockton  is  mentioned  in  the  Boldon  Book, 
drawn  up  in  1183.  "The  chapel  of  our  manor  of 
Stockton "  was  often  used  for  official  business,  as  in 
1 31 3,  when  the  bishop  heard  a  suit  there  between  the 
convent  and  the  Archdeacon  of  Durham.  The  manor- 
house  was  repaired  by  Bishop  Barnes,  who  died  in 
1587,  and  was  inhabited  ten  years  later  by  Bishop 
Matthew.  Bishop  Morton  took  refuge  at  Stockton 
for  a  short  time  during  the  Civil  War ;  but  the  house 
was  no  longer  very  habitable.  The  Parliamentary 
Commissioners,  reporting  upon  its  state  in  1647,  wrote 
"  that  the  bishop's  castle  situate  at  the  south  end  of 
the  town  by  the  river  Tease  (sic)  is  ruinous  and  in 
great  decay.  .  .  .  The  castle  hath  had  a  great  moat 
about  it,  but  the  same  is  now  for  want  of  cleaning 
filled  up  in  part,  and  within  that  moat  hath  heretofore 
been  orchards  and  gardens,  but  all  destroyed.  .  .  . 
There  hath  likewise  been  a  park,  but  the  same  hath 
been  disparked."  The  lands  of  the  estate  were  sold, 
and  the  castle  was  completely  dismantled. 

The  see  of  Sodor  and  Man  is  one  about  which 
little  is  known  ;  about  the  episcopal  residence  at  Kirk- 
michael  the  information  is  even  less.  The  bishops 
may  not  have  come  to  Kirkmichael  until  the  end  of 
the  twelfth  or  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
A  charter  of  Bishop  Nicholas,  given  in  1193,  mentions 
the  episcopal  seat  at  Sodor.     The  old  palace  at  Kirk- 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  ii 

michael  seems  to  have  been  of  primitive  construction, 
with  massive  walls,  and  ditches  and  mounds  of  an  early 
type.  If  these  indications  are  not  misleading,  the  re- 
mains which  were  visible  in  the  eighteenth  century  may 
have  belonged  to  the  thirteenth-century  building.  This 
was  known  in  early  times  as  Orrey's  Tower,  and  was 
clearly  a  defensive  building  adapted  to  the  purposes  of 
a  dwelling-house.  It  was  probably  a  tower,  and  little 
more,  throughout  the  Middle  Ages.  Historians  have 
commonly  said  that  Bishop  Simon, "of  blessed  memory," 
died  in  this  tower  in  1 247  ;  and  this  may  well  be  so, 
although  the  annalist  says  vaguely  that  he  died  at  the 
church  of  St.  Michael  (Kirkmichael).  In  the  thirteenth 
century  some  at  least  of  the  bishop's  acts  were  dated 
from  the  abbey  of  Rushen,  perhaps  a  safer  residence 
than  the  isolated  tower.  But  by  the  middle  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  Kirkmichael  was  the  place  of  meeting 
of  the  synod,  so  that  it  was  probably  the  regular  epis- 
copal seat.  In  a  confirmation  given  in  1 505  by  the 
Earl  of  Derby  and  Lord  of  Man  to  the  bishop,  "  the 
land  of  the  church  of  St.  Michael  "  is  mentioned  without 
any  reference  to  the  palace,  which  must  have  been  in 
use.  About  this  time  complaints  grew  loud  as  to  the 
poverty  of  the  see,  against  which  the  bishops  made  a 
hopeless  struggle.  Henry  VIII.  tried  to  remedy  it  by 
allowing  the  bishopric  to  be  held  together  with  the 
deanery  of  Chester  and  two  English  benefices  in  com- 
mendam ;  an  expedient  which  could  only  have  a  tem- 
porary effect.  In  1577  Bishop  Merrick  wrote  that 
he  had  received  the  benefice  "  with  that  amplitude  of 
endowments  which  it  could  be  found  from  its  records 
to  have  enjoyed  at  its  highest,  which  nevertheless 
scarcely  ever  exceeded  ;^ioo;  and  out  of  this  I  should 
have  assigned  some  portion  to  the  repair  of  the  build- 
ings."   Yet,  he  adds,  this  revenue  appeared  magnificent 


12         EPISCOPAL   PALACES  OF   YORK 

in  relation  to  the  others  of  the  island.  As  long  as  no 
one  would  give  the  see  a  proper  endowment,  this  con- 
dition of  things  was  inevitable;  and  again,  in  1610, 
Bishop  Philips  lamented  the  condition  of  his  "  ruinous 
bishopric,"  on  which  he  had  spent  200  marks  in  one 
year.  Under  these  circumstances,  the  see  was  not  con- 
sidered an  ecclesiastical  prize.  In  1660  Chancellor 
Hyde  wrote  to  Dr.  Barwick,  to  whom  it  had  apparently 
been  offered,  implying  that  he  might  gain  a  high  char- 
acter for  humility  if  he  accepted  it. 

In  consequence  of  their  poverty,  the  bishops  seem 
to  have  done  little  more  than  keep  Bishop's  Court  in 
repair.  In  1684  the  executors  of  the  late  Bishop 
Bridgeman  had  to  make  good  dilapidations  to  the  in- 
coming Bishop  Lake.  A  jury  of  workmen  set  down 
_^30  as  the  cost  of  taking  down  and  re-edifying  part 
of  the  tower  at  Bishop's  Court,  with  other  repairs  ;  but 
the  executors  escaped  payment  of  this  amount,  on  the 
plea  that  they  were  obliged  to  do  no  more  than  put 
the  tower  in  repair.  All  the  money  which  could  be 
wrung  out  of  the  Earl  of  Derby  or  "  the  charity  of 
the  Church  of  England  "  was  now  required  to  preserve 
the  cathedral ;  and  little  was  done  at  Bishop's  Court 
until  the  eighteenth  century.  Bishop  Wilson,  who 
arrived  in  the  island  in  1697,  found  the  house  a  ruin. 
He  rebuilt  it  almost  entirely,  and  it  was  probably  at 
this  period  that  a  chapel  was  added,  in  which  synods 
were  held  ;  this  chapel  was  in  existence  at  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  At  the  later  end  of  that  age, 
the  powers  of  renovation  at  last  attacked  Bishop's 
Court.  About  1780  the  tower  was  demolished  by 
Bishop  Mason,  who  modernised  the  house  at  consider- 
able expense.  In  1797-98  Bishop's  Court  "was  not 
very  striking  in  appearance,  yet  possessing  every  de- 
sirable appendage.      His   lordship's  domain  is  exten- 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  13 

sive,  about  300  or  400  acres.  The  house  has  been 
modernised  by  the  present  Bishop  [Crigan].  .  .  .  The 
garden  and  walks  are  pleasing,  and  the  detached  offices 
convenient."  At  the  same  time  are  mentioned  the  posts 
erected  in  the  garden  to  mark  the  mound  from  which 
Bishop  Hildesley  watched  the  action  between  Captain 
Elliot  and  Admiral  Thurot  in  1760.  The  house  was 
altered  again  in  the  early  nineteenth  century  by  Bishop 
Murray  (1814-27),  who  completed  the  demolition  of 
the  old  buildings.  He  removed  part  of  the  ancient 
walls  which  had  surrounded  the  tower,  and  levelled 
the  mounds  and  ditches.  Bishop's  Court  received 
further  alterations  at  the  hands  of  Bishop  Powys, 
who  died  in  1877;  he  added  a  chapel,  in  memory 
of  Bishop  Wilson. 

The  Bishopric  of  Chester  was  founded  at  a  time 
when  bishops  no  longer  moved  from  one  manor-house 
to  another ;  and  consequently  the  residence  at  Chester 
was  the  bishop's  only  house,  and  a  true  type  of  an 
episcopal  palace. 

In  1 541  Henry  VIII.  assigned  a  mansion  in  the 
monastic  buildings  to  the  newly-created  Bishop  of 
Chester.  He  gave  the  first  or  outer  hall,  with  its 
great  kitchen  and  its  offices ;  the  second  or  inner  hall 
"  with  all  its  members  "  ;  the  chapel,  and  the  bedroom 
above  it  called  the  chapel  chamber ;  another  bed- 
room, "late  of  the  abbot,"  with  a  more  private  room 
next  to  it ;  the  great  bedchamber,  and  two  rooms  on 
the  two  stories  of  the  tower.  He  also  gave  the 
abbot's  parlour,  the  new  kitchen  and  two  rooms 
between  it  and  the  monastery  gate,  the  aumbry,  and 
the  walled  garden  lying  under  the  windows  of  the  great 
bedchamber.  There  were  also  stables  and  other  offices 
lying  a  little  apart,  as  it  seems ;  and  special  mention 
was  made  of  the  cellars,  which  were  the  longest-lived 


14         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

of  all  these  monastic  buildings,  as  they  were  still 
remaining  in  1882.  They  adjoined  the  west  part  of 
the  north  aisle  of  the  cathedral. 

The  bishops  inhabited  the  palace,  whose  rooms 
were  thus  catalogued,  with  little  recorded  change  far 
into  the  seventeenth  century.  The  position  of  Chester 
on  the  high  road  to  Wales  and  Ireland  made  its  bishops 
great  entertainers,  and  occasionally  they  had  royalty 
among  their  guests.  In  September  1642  Charles  I. 
passed  through  Chester,  and  lodged  in  the  palace  for 
five  days.  Just  three  years  later  Chester  was  the 
furthest  point  reached  by  the  king  in  his  attempt  to 
join  Montrose  after  Naseby. 

The  palace  suffered  but  little  at  the  siege  of  Chester, 
for  the  Parliamentary  cannonade  was  ineffective.  But 
during  the  Commonwealth  the  bishops  were  ousted, 
and  the  palace  was  roughly  used.  In  1649  ^^^  great 
hall  was  stripped  of  its  lead,  and  laid  open  to  decay. 
In  December  1650  the  palace,  with  all  its  furniture, 
was  sold  for  £10 ^(^  to  two  speculators  in  episcopal 
property.  At  the  Restoration,  the  bishop  recovered 
his  property,  and  returned  to  live  in  the  palace. 
It  must  have  been  commodious  enough,  although  the 
great  hall  and  cloisters  were  unrepaired  ;  for  in  August 
1687  James  II.  with  his  train  was  lodged  here  for  five 
nights.  He  was  received  at  the  palace  gates  by  the 
cathedral  clergy  and  Bishop  Cartwright,  the  lively  and 
loyal,  whose  conscience  apparently  felt  no  uneasiness 
when  the  king  subsequently  went  to  mass  in  the  castle. 
The  assiduous  bishop  "  waited  at  his  cushion  until  he 
saw  him  to  bed,"  and  attended  at  the  levee  the  next 
morning,  after  which  James  went  to  the  cathedral 
to  touch  for  the  Evil.  That  evening  Cartwright 
supped  with  my  lord  Feversham  in  his  chamber, 
having    previously    entertained    a    select    few    in    his 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER  15 

study.  The  next  morning  the  king  held  his  levee 
at  six  o'clock,  and  started  for  Holywell,  while  the 
bishop,  Lord  Feversham,  Lord  Tyrconnell,  and 
Lord  Churchill  retired  to  the  study  to  drink  coffee. 
When  the  king  returned  in  the  evening,  he  took 
Cartwright  into  his  closet  for  half-an-hour,  and  a 
conversation  ensued,  in  which  both  parties  had  politi- 
cal ends  to  serve.  When  the  visit  ended,  two  days 
later,  the  bishop  was  probably  the  better  satisfied  of 
the  two.  He  had  obtained  the  nomination  of  a 
Fellow  of  All  Souls,  and  was  assured  of  further 
royal  "  instructions,"  whereas  the  king  found  a 
stubborn  temper  both  in  the  corporation  and  beyond 
it,  with  which  he  openly  expressed  his  displeasure. 

In  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  little 
was  done  to  make  good  dilapidations,  and  the  hall 
and  cloisters  fell  away.  The  monastic  offices,  although 
built  "  of  mouldering  red  stone,"  were  sufficiently  well 
preserved.  About  1742  the  bishop  began  to  fit  up 
the  old  and  decayed  chapter  -  house  as  a  library. 
Apparently,  however,  the  palace  was  too  ruinous  to 
be  saved ;  and  Bishop  Keene  rebuilt  it  entirely  in 
1752-53.  He  used  the  site,  and  may  have  followed 
the  plan  of  the  older  house.  The  bishops  lived  in 
this  new  palace  for  about  a  hundred  years.  After 
the  episcopate  of  Bishop  Graham  (1848-65)  it  was 
abandoned;  and  in  1866  the  new  palace  upon  Dee- 
side  was  formed  from  Deeside  House  and  the  arch- 
deacon's house.  The  old  palace  was  sold  to  the  dean 
and  chapter,  and  the  buildings  were  pulled  down 
in   1874. 

Rose  Castle,  the  chief  seat  of  the  Bishops  of 
Carlisle,  will  receive  separate  treatment.  There 
remain,  of  the  houses  of  this  see,  only  two,  one  at 
Horncastle    in    Lincolnshire,    and    one  at   Melbourne 


1 6         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

in  Derbyshire ;  both  occasional  residences  of  the 
bishop.  The  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  indeed,  had  more 
than  ordinary  need  of  houses  at  some  distance  from 
his  cathedral  town,  which  was  exposed  to  all  the 
storms  of  border  history. 

The  manor  of  Horncastle  was  sold  by  Ralph 
de  Rhodes  to  Walter  Mauclerk,  the  third  Bishop 
of  Carlisle,  to  whom  it  was  confirmed  by  Henry  IIL 
in  1229-30.  Horncastle  had  once  been  a  Roman 
station,  and  the  bishop's  manor-house  stood  at  the 
north-west  corner  of  the  square  of  the  old  camp. 
An  eighteenth-century  plan  represents  the  old  house 
as  a  long  building  with  two  gables  on  the  south 
side,  and  a  double-gabled  dormer  window  above  the 
door.     This  old  house  was  demolished  about  1770. 

The  bishops  made  most  use  of  the  house  during 
the  fourteenth  century.  Bishop  Ross  lived  at  Horn- 
castle in  1 33 1,  when  Rose  Castle  was  an  impos- 
sible place  of  residence ;  and  again  in  the  reign  of 
Richard  II.  the  state  of  the  border  drove  the  bishops 
southwards. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  Horncastle  passed  out 
of  the  bishop's  hands  for  a  time,  as  it  was  sold  in 
January  1553  to  Edward,  Lord  Clinton.  But  it 
was  recovered  for  the  see  early  in  the  reign  of  Mary  ; 
and  Bishop  Aldridge  died  at  the  manor-house  of 
Horncastle  in  1555.  This  seems  to  be  the  last 
evidence  that  the  bishops  inhabited  it.  They  granted 
leases  of  the  house  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  then 
to  James  I.  ;  and  when  Horncastle  was  the  basis  of 
the  attack  on  Bolingbroke  Castle  before  the  fight  at 
Winceby,  no  mention  is  made  of  the  bishop's  house. 
Although  it  belonged  to  the  see  much  later,  the 
house  was  abandoned  as  an  episcopal  residence. 

The   later  Bishops  of  Carlisle  had  a   residence  in 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  17 

Derbyshire,  for  which  they  also  had  to  thank  Walter 
Mauclerk.  He  acquired  the  rectorial  manor  of  Mel- 
bourne, the  greater  part  of  which  parish  belonged 
to  the  royal  manor  of  Melbourne.  The  king  con- 
firmed the  bishop's  possession  of  his  estate  for  life  in 
1227.  Early  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  a  jury 
accused  Bishop  Walter  of  having  enlarged  his  manor 
by  adding  to  it  various  cottages  belonging  to  the 
king's  property.  A  further  confirmation  must  have 
been  granted,  as  the  bishops  continued  to  hold  it  after 
Mauclerk's  death.  There  is  little  positive  evidence  as 
to  the  bishops'  residence  at  Melbourne  ;  the  negative 
proposition,  that  after  the  sixteenth  century  they  did 
not  live  here,  is  easier  to  prove,  for  the  house  was  held 
on  lease  from  this  time.  From  the  reign  of  Charles  I., 
when  the  lessee  was  Sir  John  Coke,  the  Secretary  of 
State,  the  Coke  family  occupied  the  house ;  and  the 
bishop  transferred  his  rights  to  the  reigning  Coke  in 
1 70 1,  in  return  for  a  perpetual  rent. 

The  London  episcopal  houses  are  more  interesting 
in  some  respects  than  the  provincial  houses ;  to  the 
topographer,  because  some  of  them  have  had  strange 
vicissitudes  and  strange  successors,  and  to  the  historian, 
because  the  bishops  came  to  London  to  attend  Parlia- 
ments and  councils,  and  some  of  these  assemblies  are 
connected  with  the  episcopal  "  inns." 

More  than  any  bishop,  the  Archbishop  of  York  had 
need  of  a  London  house,  both  as  the  second  spiritual 
lord,  and  as  the  holder  of  a  distant  see.  And  this 
first  consideration  made  his  hospice  the  scene  of 
official  acts,  and  gave  it  some  of  the  colour  of  a 
court. 

Hubert  de  Burgh,  the  great  Earl  of  Kent,  held 
certain  houses  in  Westminster,  which  he  sold  to 
Archbishop  Walter    Gray   in    1244.       The    property 


1 8         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

extended  probably  from  the  present  Whitehall,  or  a 
little  further  north,  down  to  the  Thames.  The 
house  must  have  been  a  stately  one,  before  the  end 
of  the  thirteenth  century ;  for  it  was  borrowed  by 
Edward  I.  when  the  royal  palace  at  Westminster  was 
burnt.  It  was  here  that,  in  June  1297,  Blanche,  widow 
of  the  king's  brother,  Edmund,  Earl  of  Cornwall, 
made  fealty  to  Edward  I.,  and  gave  him  her  oath  that 
she  would  not  marry  again  without  his  consent, 
Edward  had  a  room  appropriated  to  his  use  ;  in 
the  autumn  of  1302  the  Chancellor,  the  Dean  of 
Chichester,  who  was  starting  on  an  embassy  beyond 
the  seas,  surrendered  the  Great  Seal  to  the  king's 
own  hands,  "in  the  king's  chamber  in  the  lodging 
of  the  Archbishop  of  York  at  Westminster." 

As  late  as  1305  Edward  was  still  living  there. 
The  archbishops  clearly  used  the  Westminster  estate 
as  a  residence  only,  as  no  profits  arose  from  it.  This 
plaintive  declaration  was  made  by  its  "keeper"  in 
1317,  and  again  in  1373-74.  Although  it  was  called 
a  manor  in  1353,  it  was  evidently  no  more  than  the 
archbishop's  house  and  the  surrounding  buildings. 
The  terms  "  archiepiscopal  inn "  or  "  hospice,"  fre- 
quently used  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries, 
convey  a  better  image  of  the  place. 

As  befitted  an  archbishop's  house,  there  was  a 
chapel  here  as  early  as  1297,  In  the  fifteenth  century 
the  palace  must  have  been  a  fine  one.  Archbishop 
Kempe  (1426-52),  who  became  a  cardinal  in  1439, 
had  an  elaborate  household,  which  must  have  required 
plenty  of  accommodation.  Early  in  the  sixteenth 
century  the  inn,  now  becoming  known  as  York  Place, 
housed  Archbishop  Wolsey,  He  came  thither  as 
archbishop  in  15 14;  and  on  Sunday,  November  18, 
of  the  following  year,  he  started  from  York  Place  to 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  19 

receive  the  dignity  which  puts  an  archbishop  within 
reach  of  the  papacy.  Attended  by  a  train  of  nobles 
and  gentlemen,  he  proceeded  to  the  abbey,  where  the 
cardinal's  hat  was  set  upon  his  head  with  fitting 
ceremonies.  The  whole  company  then  returned  to 
the  new  cardinal's  "  place,  which  was  well  sorted  in 
every  behalf,  .  .  .  the  hall  and  chambers  garnished  very 
sumptuously  with  rich  arras,  a  great  feast  was  kept." 
The  king,  the  queen,  and  the  French  queen  dowager 
(Henry's  sister  Mary)  were  present.  Of  such  guests, 
York  Place  became  the  continual  resort,  "  against  whose 
coming  there  wanted  no  preparation  of  goodly  furni- 
ture, with  victuals  of  the  finest  sort  that  could  be  had." 
A  gentleman  of  the  cardinal  recorded  how  Henry 
visited  Wolsey  "suddenly"  one  evening,  as  one  of  a 
foreign  embassy ;  how  Wolsey  divined  the  king's 
presence,  but  guessed  Sir  Edward  Neville  to  be  the 
man  to  whom  he  should  surrender  his  place,  and  how 
the  jest,  being  discovered,  ended  in  a  gigantic  supper, 
succeeding  another,  only  less  mighty,  for  the  earlier 
guests. 

This  hospitality  had  its  graver  side.  It  was  to 
York  Place  that  ambassadors  came  to  wrangle  over 
treaties,  and  English  agents  to  make  their  reports. 
Envoys  began  and  ended  their  visits  with  calls  at 
York  Place  ;  and  there  they  were  entertained  when 
their  labours  were  successful.  Thus  in  151  8,  at  the 
conclusion  of  peace  and  alliance  with  France,  the 
Court  and  the  ambassadors  were  regaled  with  a  supper, 
which  excelled  any  given  by  Cleopatra  or  Caligula,  in 
the  phrase  of  the  cultured  Venetian  envoy. 

These  entertainments  required  a  large  style  of 
housekeeping.  Of  the  800  functionaries,  high  and 
low,  space  forbids  the  enumeration  ;  but  the  list  shows 
the  elaborate  plan  of  the  house.     The  hall,  the  great 


20         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

and  privy  chambers,  and  the  gallery  were  the  cardinal's 
living  rooms ;  but  in  the  background  were  the  hall- 
kitchen,  spicery,  scullery,  pantry,  larder,  butlery, 
cellars,  ewery,  wardrobe  of  beds,  chandlery,  laundry, 
buttery  and  bakery.  There  were  large  stables,  and 
private  stairs  to  the  Thames.  Wolsey's  chapel  may 
have  been  the  same  as  that  of  1297.  It  is  not  quite 
certain  whether  these  details  belong  to  the  time  before 
or  after  Wolsey's  rebuilding.  He  started  on  his 
embassy  to  France  in  1525  from  his  "new  house"; 
and  in  1527  his  agent  reported,  "Your  buildings  at 
York  Place  go  forward."  In  May  1528  Wolsey  was 
living  at  Durham  Place,  as  "the  hall  at  York  Place 
was  now  in  building,  my  lord's  grace  intending  most 
sumptuously  to  repair  and  furnish  the  same." 

He  was  back  at  York  Place  again  during  the 
sitting  of  the  Legatine  Court  (May  to  July  1529), 
and  he  returned  there  before  the  beginning  of  the 
Michaelmas  term.  On  the  second  day  of  term 
the  Dukes  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk  came  to  him  to 
demand  the  Great  Seal.  He  refused  to  surrender  it 
without  the  sanction  of  royal  letters,  but  when  the 
dukes  brought  them,  he  gave  up  the  Seal  "  in  the 
gallery  of  York  Place,  at  six  o'clock  on  the  19th 
of  November."  His  last  days  at  York  Place  were 
busy  with  preparing  the  house  for  the  king.  He 
went  through  the  accounts  of  his  officers,  and  left 
behind  him  great  treasures  in  stuffs,  besides  the  rich 
arras  on  the  walls.  In  the  "  Gilt  Chamber  "  and  the 
Council  Chamber  adjoining  the  gallery,  cupboards  and 
tables  were  set  out  with  an  abundance  of  plate  almost 
incredible.  On  each  a  book  was  left,  describing  the 
contents. 

By  Wolsey's  subsequent  surrender,  York  Place 
became    the    king's    property.       The    Archbishop    of 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  21 

York  was  obliged  to  use  his  Battersea  house  until 
Queen  Mary  gave  Suffolk  House  in  Southwark  to 
Archbishop  Heath.  He  caused  the  house  to  be 
pulled  down,  and  the  site  to  be  built  over  with  small, 
remunerative  tenements.  He  then  bought  another 
mansion,  called  after  its  last  two  occupants,  Norwich 
House  or  Suffolk  Place,  where  the  archbishops  lived 
until  the  end  of  the  century.  It  was  then  held  on 
lease  from  the  see  until  1623,  when  Archbishop  Toby 
Matthew  transferred  "York  House"  to  James  I.  in 
exchange  for  certain  rural  manors  in  Yorkshire. 

The  house  at  Battersea,  which  was  little  used 
during  the  prosperous  times  of  York  Place,  dated 
from  the  fifteenth  century.  In  1461,  Laurence  Booth, 
then  Bishop  of  Durham,  bought  lands  in  Battersea 
from  Lord  Stanley.  A  house  was  already  built  there, 
but  Bishop  Booth  must  have  pulled  it  down,  as  he 
built  a  new  mansion-house,  later  known  as  Bridge 
Court.  It  must  have  been  a  place  of  some  pretension, 
as  the  king  gave  him  license  to  enclose  it  with  walls 
and  towers,  and  to  make  a  park  there.  After  his 
buildings  were  finished,  Bishop  Booth  granted  the 
estate  to  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  York,  as  trustees 
for  the  archbishop,  so  that  the  latter  might  use 
Bridge  Court  as  his  town  house.  The  need  for  it 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  great,  though  the  arch- 
bishop seems  to  have  used  it  for  the  transaction  of 
business.  Thus  in  1530  resignations  and  collations 
were  made  here  as  well  as  at  York  Place,  But  Wolsey 
did  not  reside  here  often,  if  ever.  There  is  a  story 
that  he  entertained  the  king  here,  when  Henry  saw 
Anne  Boleyn  for  the  first  time ;  but  there  seems  little 
evidence  to  support  it.  The  cardinal  granted  the  use 
of  Bridge  Court  to  one  John  Oxenhyrde,  who  had 
married     his    kinswoman.        Afterwards    he    gave    a 


2  2         EPISCOPAL    PALACES   OF   YORK 

promise  to  Sir  Thomas  More,  that  if  his  son-in-law, 
"  Young  Daunce,"  should  have  to  leave  his  house, 
he  should  occupy  it.  Young  Daunce  took  advantage 
of  this  promise  about  the  time  of  Wolsey's  fall ;  and 
in  1530  the  latter  received  the  complaint  of  Mrs. 
Oxenhyrde,  that  she  had  been  expelled  from  the  house 
and  knew  not  where  to  go.  Wolsey  set  Thomas 
Cromwell  to  work  on  the  case,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  he  gave  the  Oxenhyrdes  redress. 

After  York  Place  had  passed  into  the  king's 
hands,  Battersea  became  more  important.  Archbishop 
Holgate  was  living  here  when  he  was  arrested  in 
1553,  and  the  soldiers  took  away  rich  jewels  belong- 
ing to  him.  Among  them  was  a  golden  mitre  with 
pendants  set  with  diamonds  and  sapphires,  and 
the  archbishop's  silver  seal,  and  his  signet,  a  gold 
antique. 

The  lands  round  the  house  were  let  about  this 
time,  but  the  provisions  of  the  lease  point  to  the 
occasional  residence  of  the  archbishops.  Trouble  with 
the  lessee  ensued  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth ;  but  the 
archbishop  made  good  his  rights,  and  the  house  re- 
mained in  possession  of  the  see.  After  the  sixteenth 
century,  however,  the  archbishops  do  not  seem  to 
have  resided  there.  In  18 14  a  large  part  of  the  old 
house,  including  the  "  Painted  Chamber,"  had  just 
been  pulled  down. 

The  Bishops  of  Durham  probably  had  a  town 
house  at  an  early  date.  The  first  mention  of  it  occurs 
in  1 197,  when  the  see  was  vacant,  and  its  lands  in  the 
custody  of  the  king.  Robert  of  Rockingham  received 
20s.  a  year  for  "  keeping  the  bishop's  house  in 
London,"  and  an  extra  17s.  6d.  for  repairs  done  to 
the  walls  round  it.  About  12 12,  when  the  see  was 
again  vacant,  the  house  is  mentioned  in  records.     In 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER  23 

this  year  repairs  had  raised  the  expenses  of  keeping- 
it  to  ;^i8,  i6s.  lod.     It  probably  stood  on  the  same 
site  as  the  later  Durham  House,  *'  on  the  south  side 
of  the  Strand,  in  the  liberties  of  Westminster,  by  Ivie 
Bridge."     The  usual  statement   that  it  was  built  by 
Thomas  of  Hatfield,  who  was  elected  to  the  see  in 
1 345?  probably  refers   to  a  complete   rebuilding.     A 
chronicler   writes    that    the    bishop    constructed    the 
episcopal    hospice    in    London    with    a    chapel    and 
chambers    in    the    most    costly    way.       He    certainly 
instituted  chaplains  to  celebrate  service  in  the  house 
in   1380.      It  was   no   doubt  the  building   of  Bishop 
Hatfield   which  was  in  use  in  the   fifteenth   century. 
Privy  Councils  were  held  there  not  infrequently  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VI.      In  May  1434  it  was  at  a  Council 
held  in  the  great  chamber  of  "  Duresme's  Inne  "  that 
the   feud   between   Humphrey,    Duke   of  Gloucester, 
and  John,   Duke  of  Bedford,  came  to  a  head.      The 
latter  read  an  exculpation  of  himself  from  Gloucester's 
charges,  but  the  Duke  Humphrey  found  that  many 
things  contained   in  it  touched   his  honour,  and  was 
prepared   to   give   his   written   answer.      The    quarrel 
showed    no    signs    of  exhaustion    as    long    as    either 
party  could  command  speech  or  parchment,  but  the 
king   confiscated   all  the  documents   and   assured   the 
dukes  that  the  honour  of  either  was  undamaged,  and 
that  he  held  them  both  to  be  his  good  and  faithful 
uncles.     Several  other  Councils  were  held  in  this  year 
at  the  Bishop  of  Durham's  house,  and  at  one  at  least 
the  king  was  present,  and  declared  with  his  own  voice 
that  £6000  due  to  Cardinal  Beaufort  should  be  repaid 
to  him. 

Duresme's  Inn  was  not  always  an  entirely  peaceful 
residence.  In  1474  the  bishop  did  some  of  his  work 
as  Chancellor  at  his  own  house,  and  on  one  occasion. 


24         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

when  a  culprit  was  brought  before  him  in  his  hall, 
certain  armed  misdoers  came  in  and  rescued  the 
accused,  making  one  prisoner,  whom  they  took  away 
with  them,  and  grievously  wounding  another  of  the 
bishop's  men.  While  Wolsey  was  Bishop  of  Durham 
he  used  Durham  Place  but  little.  In  1528,  however, 
he  moved  there  while  York  Place  was  being  altered, 
and  his  negotiations  for  the  Decretal  Commission  were 
carried  on  from  Durham  Place.  At  his  fall  the  house 
was  not  conveyed  to  the  king,  but  belonged  to  the 
bishop  a  few  years  longer.  It  was,  however,  worth 
the  king's  taking,  and  in  July  1536  the  bishop  ex- 
changed it  with  him  for  the  house  of  Coldharbour, 
in  Thames  Street. 

Henry  altered  Durham  Place,  which  became  a 
residence  of  Edward  VI.  before  his  accession,  after 
which  he  granted  it  to  Elizabeth  for  life. 

Coldharbour  had  been  a  great  baronial  house  since 
the  fourteenth  century.  It  adjoined  All  Hallows-the- 
Less,  against  which  its  arched  gate  of  entry  was  built. 
When  the  Bishopric  of  Durham  was  dissolved,  in  the 
last  year  of  Edward's  reign,  Coldharbour  passed  away 
to  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury.  The  see  was  refounded 
by  Mary,  who  granted  the  bishop  the  reversion  of 
Durham  Place  after  Elizabeth's  death,  and  in  1603 
he  obtained  it  under  this  grant.  The  great  man- 
sion was  more  than  large  enough  for  the  moderate 
households  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Bishop  Niele 
(1617-27)  was  able  to  lodge  his  own  train  and  to  give 
houseroom  to  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  and  to  his  friend 
Laud,  first  as  Dean  of  Gloucester  and  then  as  Bishop 
of  St.  David's,  "  so  that  the  house  passed  by  the  name 
of  Durham  College."  Bishop  Morton  was  confirmed 
in  his  see  in  the  chapel  of  Durham  House  in  July 
1632,  and  this  was  not  without  a  prophetic  fitness,  as 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER  25 

his  unhappy  episcopate  was  peculiarly  associated  with 
Durham  Place.  In  the  end  of  1641  he  was  accused 
of  treason,  but  the  accusation  being  dropped  he  retired 
to  Durham  House  in  May  1642,  and  spent  his  time 
there  "attending  his  devotions  and  studies."  In  1645, 
after  further  imprisonment,  he  again  withdrew  thither, 
having  scarcely  means  wherewith  to  live,  as  his 
revenues  had  been  sequestered.  He  was  voted  an 
annuity  of  ;^8oo,  of  which  he  received  nothing  beyond 
a  bill  on  the  Exchequer  for  ^^looo.  On  this  he  sub- 
sisted at  Durham  House  for  some  time,  until  he  was 
turned  out  by  the  soldiers  who  came  to  garrison  it. 
It  was  the  last  place  he  could  call  his  own,  and  he 
went  into  the  country  for  economy's  sake — a  pathetic 
figure,  old,  devout,  with  very  little  worldly  wisdom 
and  less  worldly  wealth.  When  his  stock  was  visibly 
near  its  end,  he  encountered  a  good  Samaritan,  Sir 
Christopher  Yelverton,  with  whose  family  he  lived 
until  his  death. 

The  last  years  of  his  tenancy  of  Durham  House 
must  have  been  by  favour  of  the  Earl  of  Pembroke, 
to  whom  the  house  had  been  conveyed  by  Act  of 
Parliament  in  1641.  A  rent-charge  of  ;^2oo  was 
reserved  to  the  see.  After  this,  of  course,  the  bishops 
resided  at  Durham  Place  no  longer. 

The  history  of  the  London  house  of  the  see  of 
Carlisle  is  somewhat  fragmentary.  Early  in  the  six- 
teenth century  the  bishop  occupied  "  Carlisle  Place," 
west  of  Temple  Bar  ;  but  how  long  this  house  had 
belonged  to  the  see  is  quite  uncertain.  Carlisle  Place 
is  said  to  have  been  the  seat  of  the  Earls  of  Worcester, 
from  whom  it  passed  to  "  Henry,  Duke  of  Beaufort." 
This  must  have  been  Henry  Beaufort,  Duke  of  Somer- 
set, who  was  beheaded  in  April  1464.  Hence  Carlisle 
Place  cannot  have  belonged  to  the  bishops  much  before 


2  6         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF    YORK 

the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  it  may  not  have 
been  the  first  residence  which  they  owned  in  London. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  Carlisle  Place  was  constantly  in- 
habited by  the  bishops  in  Henry  VIII. 's  reign.  A 
valuation  of  the  temporalities  of  the  see  gives  a  few 
details  about  it :  "  The  bishop  has  certain  lands  and 
rents  in  Middlesex  outside  Temple  Bar  in  London 
called  Carlile  Place  {sic)  worth  by  the  year  £i6,  os.  4d." 
About  1537  Thomas  Cromwell  appears  to  have  had 
designs  upon  the  house  for  himself  or  a  friend.  In 
that  year  the  bishop,  Robert  Aldridge,  wrote  to  him 
from  Carlisle  Place,  expressing  his  submission  in  the 
matter  of  one  Mr.  Whalley,  Cromwell's  servant;  he 
reminded  Cromwell  that  he  had  spoken  of  this  matter 
"  at  Nette,  when  Cromwell  was  minded  to  have  lain  at 
Carlisle  House  in  London,"  He  added,  that  much 
was  offered  to  him  for  the  lease,  which  he  seemed 
inclined  to  grant,  although  "  his  predecessors  had  left 
nothing  unlet  for  more  years  than  he  or  his  successor 
would  probably  see."  Whatever  aims  Cromwell  may 
have  had  do  not  seem  to  have  been  compassed,  for 
the  house  finally  passed  from  the  see  of  Carlisle  by  a 
triangular  transaction,  confirmed  by  an  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment of  1539.  By  this  exchange  the  Bishop  of  Carlisle 
gave  his  house  "  without  Temple  Bar  "  to  Lord  Russell, 
and  received  the  "  place  "  of  the  Bishop  of  Rochester 
in  Lambeth.  The  Bishop  of  Rochester  in  turn  obtained 
the  mansion-place  of  Lord  Russell  at  Chiswick ;  and 
in  so  far  had  the  worst  of  the  bargain,  as  he  received 
the  house  furthest  from  the  court  and  city.  Lord 
Russell  was  to  pay  the  Bishop  of  Carlisle  an  annual 
rent  of  ;^i6,  which  was  a  very  fair  charge,  judging  by 
the  valuation  of  temporalities  already  quoted. 

The  new  house  lay  in  Lambeth   Marsh.     It  was 
apparently  a  somewhat   unpretentious   place,  and  the 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  27 

bishop  did  not  live  there  for  long.  He  quitted  it 
during  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  and  the  house  was 
subsequently  let  on  lease.  Like  other  episcopal  posses- 
sions, it  was  confiscated  during  the  Commonwealth, 
and  was  sold  to  one  Matthew  Hardy  in  February 
1647  by  the  commissioners  for  the  sale  of  bishops' 
lands,  on  which  occasion  it  fetched  the  modest  sum 
of  ;^ 2 20.  After  it  was  restored  to  the  see  in  1660, 
Carlisle  House  seems  to  have  been  let  to  strange 
tenants.  It  was  successively  a  pottery,  a  tavern,  and 
worse,  if  reputation  does  not  belie  it.  By  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  however,  it  had  returned  to 
gentility,  and  an  academy  for  young  gentlemen  was 
established  there.  By  this  time,  also,  the  old  house 
had  almost  entirely  disappeared,  what  remained  being 
incorporated  with  a  more  modern  dwelling-house. 

In  the  province  of  York  a  third  type  of  episcopal 
palace  is  represented.  Five  of  its  sees — Ripon,  Man- 
chester, Liverpool,  Wakefield  and  Newcastle — have 
been  created  since  1830,  in  consequence  of  the  growth 
of  population  in  these  industrial  areas.  And  in  these 
sees  the  bishops'  residences  have  little  of  the  interest 
of  association  ;  their  history  does  not  concern  itself 
with  warrior  bishops  and  besieging  armies,  but  with 
Orders  in  Council,  and  that  calm,  beneficent  body,  the 
Ecclesiastical  Commissioners. 

The  earliest  of  these  sees  is  that  of  Ripon.  The 
bishopric  was  founded  in  February  1838,  and  the 
bishop  and  Commissioners  at  once  took  up  the  plans 
for  a  palace.  Lands  belonging  to  Bramley  Grange 
Farm,  near  Ripon,  were  bought  for  a  site  ;  and  further, 
the  Archbishop  of  York  and  his  lessee  gave  up  to  the 
bishop  a  house  called  Day  House,  with  its  grounds, 
in  Northley  Fields.  Presumably  the  two  purchases 
adjoined.     Day  House  seems  to  have  been  an  incon- 


2  8         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

spicuous  place,  as  it  is  not  mentioned  by  a  historian 
of  Ripon  in  1 832  ;  and  the  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners 
must  have  removed  the  old  buildings,  as  they  under- 
took the  construction  of  new  ones.  In  July  1839 
they  allotted  /^  10,000  to  "  erect  and  complete  "  certain 
houses,  offices,  and  outbuildings,  already  begun  under 
their  sanction.  By  April  1841  the  palace  was  almost 
finished,  but  the  Commissioners  had  to  allow  a  further 
sum  of  ;^20oo  before  it  could  be  occupied.  In  the 
autumn  of  the  same  year  the  bishop  moved  in,  but  in 
March  1842  a  final  payment  of  ;/^i500  had  to  be  made. 
After  this,  the  palace  was  unaltered  until  1847,  when 
Archbishop  Harcourt  presented  the  Bishop  of  Ripon 
with  a  fine  chapel,  which  was  built  at  his  expense. 
For  nearly  twenty  years  nothing  further  was  done  ; 
in  1865  a  few  slight  alterations  and  improvements 
were  made. 

The  palace  of  the  Bishop  of  Manchester  has  had  a 
more  varied  history.  When  the  see  was  founded  the 
Ecclesiastical  Commissioners  were  not  prepared  with  a 
house  for  the  bishop,  so  that,  in  February  1849,  ^^ 
Order  in  Council  sanctioned  the  hiring  of  a  temporary 
house,  at  a  rent  not  exceeding  ;^400  a  year.  This 
arrangement  held  good  until  1854,  and  seems  to  have 
been  more  satisfactory  than  the  subsequent  one  ;  for 
in  this  year  the  Commissioners  bought  a  manor-house, 
Mauldeth  Hall,  with  about  thirty-four  acres  of  land, 
in  Heaton  Norris — a  purchase  which  was  not  very 
fortunate,  as  the  hall  was  more  than  five  miles  from 
the  central  part  of  Manchester,  and  was  an  expensive 
place  to  keep  up.  These  defects  seem  somewhat 
obvious,  but  there  were  others,  as  there  was  not  suffi- 
cient accommodation  for  clergy  or  for  candidates  for 
the  ministry.  Nevertheless,  Bishop  Lee  lived  here 
throughout  his  episcopate,  and  died  here  in  1869.     His 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER  29 

successor,  Bishop  Frazer,  endured  the  disadvantages 
until  1872,  when  he  put  forward  the  pleas  of  expense 
and  distance,  which  the  Commissioners  could  not  but 
uphold.  Early  in  the  year  arrangements  were  made 
for  the  sale  of  Mauldeth  Hall,  and  the  purchase- 
money  was  used  to  buy  Broughton  House  from 
Mr.  Murray  Gladstone.  This  house  had  the  great 
advantage  of  being  but  two  miles  from  the  centre 
of  the  city,  and  it  was  also  a  convenient  place,  needing 
little  alteration,  and  less  upkeep  than  Mauldeth  Hall. 
In  1873,  ;^I200  was  spent  to  fit  it  for  the  bishop's 
habitation,  and  this  seems  to  have  covered  all  that  was 
necessary.  Dr.  Frazer  changed  the  name  of  the  house 
into  Bishop's  Court,  which  it  has  kept  ever  since. 

The  see  of  Liverpool  was  founded  in  April  1880, 
under  the  terms  of  the  Bishoprics  Act,  1878.  No 
official  residence  was  given  to  Bishop  Ryle  at  his  entry, 
but  when  his  house  was  finally  chosen  the  mistake 
made  at  Manchester  was  avoided.  No.  1 9  Abercromby 
Square,  which  had  previously  been  occupied  by  the 
Haytian  consul,  became  the  bishop's  residence — a  sub- 
stantial town  house,  lying  conveniently  in  the  city. 
This  house  is  still  the  bishop's  palace. 

Newcastle  has  perhaps  been  more  fortunate  in  its 
episcopal  palace  than  any  of  the  foregoing  towns. 
Benwell  Tower  has  the  advantages  of  comparatively 
modern  buildings  and  the  interest  of  old  associations. 
The  Tower,  and  a  small  chapel  belonging  to  it,  formed 
the  country  house  of  the  Priors  of  Tynemouth  before 
the  Dissolution.  When  the  monastery  was  surrendered 
to  Henry  VIII.,  its  possessions  were  sold  piecemeal, 
and  Benwell  Tower  came  ultimately  to  the  family  of 
Shaftoe  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  The  Shaftoes  were 
a  prolific  and  thrifty  race,  and  the  house  continued  in 
their  hands  until  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


30         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

Whether  they  were  Puritan  or  whether  they  were 
indifferent  does  not  appear,  but  during  their  possession 
the  chapel  fell  into  disuse  and  finally  decayed  away. 
About  1779  the  last  Shaftoe,  who,  contrary  to  the 
family  tradition,  had  an  only  daughter,  sold  the  house 
of  Benwell  Tower  ;  and  the  purchaser  was  a  man  whose 
character  and  appearance  of  wealth  gave  reason  to 
suppose  that  he  would  pay.  This  was  the  notorious 
Andrew  Bowes,  whose  adventures  with  his  second  wife, 
the  Countess  of  Strathmore,  are  only  to  be  likened  to 
those  of  Barry  Lyndon.  Mr.  Shaftoe's  daughter  was 
the  sufferer,  as  Mr.  Bowes  evaded  payment,  and  mort- 
gaged the  estate  heavily  to  raise  the  purchase-money. 
While  trying  many  devices  to  find  it,  Bowes  would 
never  take  the  obvious  one  of  selling  Benwell  Tower, 
for  which  he  had  a  liking.  He  never  resided  there, 
however,  and  no  repairs  were  made,  for  his  wife's 
fortune  was  always  employed  in  his  personal  and 
immediate  expenses.  The  mansion-house  decayed 
more  and  more,  but  Bowes  would  neither  mend  or 
end  it,  and  continued  to  hold  it  until  his  death  in 
1 810.  Benwell  Tower  was  then  sold,  and  passed 
through  several  hands.  About  1825  a  Mr.  Walker, 
then  the  owner,  built  a  new  house,  the  "elegance" 
of  which  must  have  been  a  more  cheerful  sight  than 
the  unrepaired  antiquity  of  Bowes'  mansion. 

The  bishopric  of  Newcastle  was  founded  in  May 
1882,  and  the  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners  were  re- 
lieved of  the  burden  of  finding  an  episcopal  residence. 
Mr.  J.  W.  Pease,  a  banker,  bought  Benwell  Tower 
and  gave  it  to  the  new  bishop.  The  house  was  pre- 
sumably the  building  of  1825,  and  little  alteration 
seems  to  have  been  necessary.  In  1883  changes  were 
made  which  can  only  have  been  slight,  as  the  cost  to 
the  bishop  was  ^650. 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER 


The  see  of  Wakefield,  like  Liverpool  and  New- 
castle, was  created  under  the  Bishoprics  Act  of  1878. 
In  1888  the  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners  were  satisfied 
that  Wakefield  could  fulfil  the  financial  and  other 
conditions  laid  down  in  the  Act.  They  accepted  a 
guarantee  that  a  house  should  be  provided  for  the 
bishop  within  five  years,  or  that  ^^500  a  year  should 
be  allowed  to  him  in  lieu  of  it.  On  these  terms  the 
see  was  founded  by  an  Order  in  Council.  Already,  in 
1888,  funds  had  been  raised  for  the  palace  ;  the  York- 
shire Ladies'  Committee  of  the  Ripon  Diocesan  Con- 
ference provided  more  than  ^^  10,000. 

Nevertheless,  the  palace  was  not  ready  until  quite 
the  end  of  the  five  years'  term  ;  and  the  bishop  lived 
at  Thornhill,  near  Dewsbury,  until  1893.  "Bishops- 
garth  "  at  Wakefield  was  ready  for  his  occupation  in 
that  year. 


(§i6^op(§ovpt 


BISHOPTHORPE  is  the  name  of  a  quiet  little 
village  situated  nearly  three  miles  from  York 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  river  Ouse,  which, 
like  a  silver  ribbon,  winds  its  way  southwards 
through  the  lovely  vale  of  York,  until  it  finally  reaches 
the  Humber  and  loses  itself  in  the  North  Sea.  This 
village  was  originally  called  Thorp  Christchurch, 
Thorp-super-Usam,  or  Thorp-juxta-Eboracum,  and 
subsequently  Thorp  St.  Andrew,  or  St.  Andrew- 
thorpe,  from  the  dedication  of  its  church,  which 
belonged  to  the  Priory  of  St.  Andrew,  York ;  but 
shortly  after  the  manor  came  into  the  possession  of 
the  Archbishops  of  York  it  acquired  the  name  of 
Bishopthorpe,  by  which  it  has  been  since  known. 

The  Scandinavian  word  "  Torp,"  or  Thorpe, 
indicates  the  probability  that  Bishopthorpe  was  a 
Danish  settlement.  At  the  time  of  the  Norman 
Conquest  it  shared  in  the  general  devastation  of  the 
surrounding  country,  as  the  entry  relating  to  it  in  the 
Domesday  Survey  amply  proves.^  The  land  was  stated 
to  be  then  waste,  and  greatly  reduced  in  value  since 
the  time  of  Edward  the  Confessor.  Two  out  of  the 
three  carucates  at  which  it  was  assessed  were  in  the 
hands  of  Richard,  son  of  Erfast ;  the  remaining  carucate 
belonged  to  Robert  Malet.  Bishopthorpe  was  after- 
wards divided  among  various  proprietors,  from  whom 
a  large  part  of  the  village,  together  with  the  manorial 

1  Dom.  Bk.  (fac.  edit.),  47,  59,  Sz  h. 
33 


BISHOPTHORPE  33 

rights,  were   purchased   by  Walter   Gray,   the  thirty- 
third  Archbishop  of  York. 

Here  is  the  beautifully  situated  archiepiscopal 
residence,  which  has  attained  its  present  splendid  pro- 
portions through  a  long  series  of  alterations  and  addi- 
tions dating  from  its  first  erection  in  the  early  part  of 
the  thirteenth  century.  Although  often  so  called,  it  is 
not,  properly  speaking,  a  palace,  and  this  designation, 
which  should  be  reserved  for  an  episcopal  house 
situated  in  a  cathedral  city,  has  been  relinquished 
within  recent  years. 

Bishopthorpe  was  not  the  oldest  residence  belonging 
to  the  see  of  York,  as  Archbishop  Roger  had  built  one 
on  the  north  side  of  the  Minster  about  the  middle  of 
the  twelfth  century.  This,  however,  survived  only 
until  the  Reformation,  and  the  chapel,  now  used  as  the 
library  of  the  cathedral,  is  the  only  substantial  relic  of 
its  former  magnificence.  The  archbishops  also  had 
mansions  at  Cawood,  Ripon,  Southwell,  Whitehall  (the 
latter  called  York  Place  until  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.), 
and  other  places,  altogether  numbering  perhaps  over 
seventeen.  All  these  have  now  passed  away,  leaving 
Bishopthorpe  the  only  official  residence  of  the  see. 

Although  greatly  transformed,  the  present  mansion 
has  actually  grown  from  Walter  Gray's  original  struc- 
ture, much  of  which  is  still  preserved.  The  building 
is  so  closely  associated  with  this  archbishop  that  some 
account  of  "the  greatest  prelate  of  the  century  in 
which  he  lived,"  as  he  is  described  by  Canon  Raine, 
will  not  be  out  of  place. 

Various  authorities  have  disagreed  as  to  his 
parentage,  but  it  seems  almost  certain  that  he  was  a 
younger  son  of  John  and  Hawise  de  Gray  of  Rother- 
field,  the  representatives  of  a  rich  and  important 
family.     He    was    educated    at    Oxford,    and    having 

c 


34         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

entered  the  Church,  obtained  his  subsequent  prefer- 
ments from  King  John,  with  whom  he  was  a  great 
favourite,  owing,  it  seems,  to  an  obsequious  manner, 
which  did  not  fail  to  delight  that  monarch.  Although 
he  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a  student,  Gray  was 
an  eminently  practical  man,  and  this  disposition  stood 
him  in  good  stead  when,  having  succeeded  the  wild 
and  careless  Geoffrey  Plantagenet,  who  left  the  pro- 
vince of  York  "  a  barren  wilderness,"  he  was  able  to 
transform  it  into  a  "fruitful  garden."  From  his  early 
years  he  gave  great  attention  to  secular  affairs,  and  in 
1205  paid  the  king  five  thousand  marks  for  his 
appointment  to  the  office  of  Chancellor  of  England, 
which  he  retained  until  his  consecration  to  the 
bishopric  of  Worcester  in  12 14.  He  fully  justified 
the  confidence  which  King  John  reposed  in  him,  and 
firmly  adhered  to  his  sovereign  during  his  fierce  quarrel 
with  the  barons,  being  present  at  Runnymeade  as  one 
of  his  advisers  when  Magna  Carta  was  signed. 

A  few  days  afterwards  John  made  his  first  en- 
deavour to  procure  his  favourite's  election  to  the  arch- 
bishopric of  York,  which  had  been  vacant  since  1207. 
The  king  had  in  the  meantime  been  appropriating  the 
revenues,  as  was  his  custom,  but  the  necessity  for  a 
new  head  of  the  northern  province  was  becoming  more 
and  more  obvious.  The  Chapter,  however,  were 
desirous  of  appointing  Simon  de  Langton,  brother  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  persisted  in  their 
refusal  to  elect  Gray  on  account  of  his  illiteracy. 
John  appealed  to  the  Pope,  and  the  controversy  was 
settled  by  his  decision  that  Gray  should  be  elected, 
although  he  demanded  from  the  latter  the  sum  of  ten 
thousand  pounds  for  his  assent.  This  large  amount 
may  have  crippled  the  resources  of  the  primate  during 
the  first  years  of  his  archiepiscopate,  and  was  possibly 


BISHOPTHORPE  35 

the  cause  of  certain  parsimonious  dealings  with  the 
poor  of  which  he  has  been  accused.  His  liberality  to 
the  churches  of  York  and  Ripon,  and  on  the  occasion 
of  the  marriage  of  Alexander  III.  of  Scotland  to  the 
daughter  of  Henry  III.  in  1252,  are  well  known. 

Gray  occupied  the  primacy  for  forty  years,  a  longer 
time  than  any  of  his  predecessors  or  successors.  He 
was  a  good  organiser,  and  his  administration  of  the 
province  was  wise  and  energetic.  He  is  the  first  of 
the  archbishops  whose  official  acts  are  recorded  in  the 
register  at  York.  They  have  been  edited  by  Canon 
Raine,  and  bear  witness  to  the  order  and  system  ob- 
served by  the  primate.  He  continued  to  be  a  great 
statesman  as  well  as  a  great  ecclesiastic.  After  the 
death  of  King  John  he  secured  the  confidence  of 
Henry  III.,  and  was  left  in  charge  of  the  kingdom 
during  the  latter's  absence  abroad.  "  In  every  im- 
portant event  which  took  place  in  the  history  of 
the  nation,"  says  Canon  Raine,  "  Gray  was  more  or 
less  concerned."  Towards  the  end  of  his  life  he 
showed  his  growing  dissatisfaction  with  the  king's 
misgovernment,  a  fact  that  is  rather  to  his  credit  than 
otherwise,  as  the  diplomacy  which  characterised  the 
first  part  of  his  career  was  probably  not  altogether 
disinterested.  The  affairs  of  State  seem  to  have  preyed 
upon  his  mind,  and  his  health  began  to  give  way.  At 
last,  at  the  invitation  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  he 
went  to  the  palace  of  Fulham  in  search  of  rest,  but 
had  only  been  there  three  days  when  he  died  on  ist 
May  1255. 

Archbishop  Gray's  acquisition  of  the  manor  of 
Bishopthorpe  took  place  about  1226.  The  pretty 
village  was  within  easy  reach  of  the  cathedral  city 
either  by  road  or  river,  and  no  doubt  formed  a  most 
attractive  site  for  a  country  residence.     Here  he  built 


2,6         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF    YORK 

a  manor-house  with  a  chapel,  and  secured  the  property 
to  the  see  by  vesting  it  in  the  Dean  and  Chapter 
of  York  as  perpetual  trustees  for  the  use  of  himself 
and  his  successors.  This  precaution  was  rendered 
necessary  owing  to  the  practice,  initiated  by  Henry  II., 
of  purposely  keeping  a  see  vacant,  sometimes  for  years, 
and  appropriating  its  revenues  to  the  royal  exchequer. 

The  interesting  document  by  which  Archbishop 
Gray  preserved  Bishopthorpe  for  the  see  is  dated  1241. 
By  it  he  granted  to  the  Chapter  of  York  his  mansion 
in  Thorpe  St.  Andrew,  and  all  that  he  had  there  "  on 
the  south  side  of  the  water  course  called  Caldicotesike, 
which  runs  from  the  wood  by  the  sheepfold  into  the 
fish-pond  and  thence  into  the  river  Use,  together  with 
the  watermill  on  the  fish-pond  and  all  the  land  of  the 
prebend  of  Bicehill,  and  the  rent  of  money  and  hens 
and  all  things,  except  a  chief  mansion  assigned  to  the 
prebend  of  Cnaresburgh,"  with  other  lands,  on  con- 
dition that  the  Chapter  granted  the  property  to  the 
successors  of  the  archbishop  for  a  rent  of  twenty 
marks,  payable  to  the  treasurer  of  York,  who  was  to 
bestow  the  money  as  follows  :  six  pounds  to  be  paid 
to  a  chaplain,  who  was  to  be  appointed  by  the  Dean 
and  Chapter,  or,  if  there  were  no  Dean,  by  the  Chapter, 
to  say  mass  in  the  chapel  of  Thorpe  St.  Andrew  for 
the  souls  of  King  John,  the  archbishop,  and  all  the 
faithful  departed  ;  twenty  shillings  for  lights  at  Whit- 
sun  ;  on  the  anniversary  of  the  archbishop,  three 
shillings  to  every  canon  of  York  who  attended  the 
funeral  ceremony,  two  shillings  to  every  vicar,  twelve 
pence  to  every  deacon  and  subdeacon,  and  three  pence 
to  each  clerk  of  the  choir  ;  the  remainder  was  to  be 
given  to  the  poor  on  that  day  "by  the  view  of  the 
Chapter."  During  any  vacancy  of  the  see  the  Chapter 
were  to  hold  the  property  and  pay  the  treasurer  the 


BISHOPTHORPE  37 

twenty  marks ;  if  any  succeeding  archbishop  refused 
to  take  it  over  and  become  responsible  for  the  charge, 
the  Chapter  were  to  retain  it  until  an  archbishop 
chose  to  appropriate  it  with  the  charge.  The  charter 
concludes  with  the  declaration  that  any  who  violate  it 
are  excommunicate/ 

Imagination  can  picture  the  manor-house  thus 
virtually,  though  not  absolutely,  given  to  the  see  of 
York  by  Archbishop  Gray  as  it  existed  in  his  time. 
Built  in  the  Lancet  Gothic  style,  as  the  beautiful  and 
now  restored  chapel  indicates,  the  central  portion  con- 
sisted of  the  great  hall  running  north  and  south,  which 
is  now  used  as  a  dining-room,  with  a  passage  to  the 
west.  The  walls  were  of  stone,  and  a  stone  bench 
encircled  the  hall,  which  was  then  far  more  lofty 
than  it  is  now,  with  no  rooms  above.  The  masonry 
of  a  large  entrance-door,  through  which  the  archbishop 
would  pass  after  alighting  from  his  barge,  can  still 
be  traced.  Another  door  connected  the  hall  with  the 
chapel  which  constituted  the  south  wing,  running  east 
and  west.  The  roof  was  pitched  and  gabled,  and 
below  was  a  crypt,  probably  forming  another  chapel, 
the  old  principle  being,  as  Canon  Keble  explains,  that 
"  consecration  extended  from  earth  to  sky,  and  the 
existence  of  bedrooms  above  or  larder  below  would 
have  been  thought  a  desecration."  ^  North  of  the 
dining-hall  were  two  small  rooms,  doubtless  the 
private  sitting-rooms  of  the  archbishop ;  and  under- 
neath all  these  were  large  kitchens  and  offices.  Above 
the  two  little  rooms  were  one  or  two  small  bedrooms 
for  the  use  of  the  archbishop  and  any  important 
visitor.       Private    sleeping    apartments   were   in  those 

^  The  document   is  given  in   full  in   the  Register  of  Archbishop   Gray, 
printed  by  the  Surtees  Society,  pp.  192-95. 
^  Bishopthorpe,  59. 


38         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

days  regarded  as  a  luxury  and  by  no  means  a  necessity 
for  the  ordinary  members  of  the  household,  who  were 
obliged  to  be  contented  with  plank  beds  laid  on  tressels 
in  the  great  hall,  or  even  with  the  rush-strewn  floor. 

There  is  little  to  be  said  about  Bishopthorpe 
for  the  next  two  centuries  and  a  half.  The  mansion 
remained  practically  as  Archbishop  Gray  left  it,  and 
while  interest  naturally  centres  round  the  successive 
occupants,  only  occasional  references  to  the  house  itself 
occur,  and  these,  as  a  rule,  either  when  it  was  in  need 
of  repair,  or  when  letters  or  orders  are  dated  from  the 
manor,  showing  that  the  archbishops  were  in  residence 
on  specified  days,  or,  later,  when  ordinations  were  held, 
as  may  be  supposed,  in  the  chapel. 

The  archbishops,  when  it  happened  that  they  were 
in  their  province,  divided  their  time  between  Bishop- 
thorpe and  their  other  manors.  The  prelates  of  the 
age,  like  their  sovereigns,  led  a  migratory  life,  and 
were  seldom  more  than  a  few  days  in  one  place.  They 
travelled  from  one  residence  to  another  with  great 
pomp  and  ceremony,  accompanied  by  numerous  re- 
tainers, who  carried  their  master's  wardrobe  and  plate 
and  a  great  deal  of  the  furniture  with  which  his  several 
manor-houses  were  fitted  up. 

Gray  was  succeeded  in  the  archbishopric  by  a  man 
of  very  different  character,  the  learned  and  saintly 
Sewal  de  Bovill,  whose  name  only  once  occurs  in 
connection  with  the  State.  He  was  Dean  of  York 
when  nominated  by  the  Chapter  for  the  promotion. 
Henry  III.  did  his  best  to  obstruct  his  election,  being 
determined  to  seize  the  temporalities  of  the  see. 
"  I  have  never  had  them  before,  and  they  shall  not 
slip  through  my  fingers  yet,"  he  said.^  He  justified 
his  objections   on   the    ground    of   an    irregularity   in 

*  Matthew  Paris  (Rolls  Ser.),  v.  516. 


BISHOPTHORPE  39 

Bovill's  birth,  but  the  latter  was  supported  by  the 
Pope,  and  Henry  was  bound  to  give  his  assent.  The 
primate's  tenure  of  the  archiepiscopate  was  short,  and 
the  end  of  his  life  was  a  martyrdom  which  had  been 
foretold  by  his  master  at  Oxford,  Edmund  de  Abing- 
don, who  was  afterwards  canonised.  Bovill,  although 
naturally  patient,  bitterly  resented  the  custom  of 
giving  English  preferments  to  foreign  priests,  and 
refused  to  submit  to  the  Pope's  appointment  of  an 
Italian  cardinal  to  the  deanery  of  York.  His  protest 
subjected  him  to  a  grievous  persecution ;  he  was 
suspended  from  office,  and  finally  excommunicated. 
It  is  uncertain  whether  the  papal  ban  was  ever 
removed,  but  Bovill  sank  under  his  troubles,  and  as 
a  dying  man  entreated  the  Pope  not  to  tyrannise  over 
the  Church,  "  For  the  Lord  said  to  Peter,  '  Feed  My 
sheep,'  and  not  '  Shear  them,  skin  them,  tear  out  their 
entrails  or  eat  them  up.'  "  ^  On  the  Easter  Day  before 
his  death  in  1258  Bovill  made  a  great  feast  for  the 
poor,  but  withdrew  from  it  himself  in  order  to  take 
a  part  in  the  services  of  his  chapel. 

Little  is  known  of  Godfrey  de  Ludham,  the  next 
Archbishop  of  York,  who  received  the  temporalities 
of  his  see  on  ist  December  following  the  death  of 
his  predecessor.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  a  Sir 
Walter  de  Ludham,  Knight,  probably  a  relative,  was 
among  the  witnesses  to  Archbishop  Gray's  grant  of 
Bishopthorpe  to  the  Chapter  of  York. 

No  registers  are  extant  of  these  last  two  arch- 
bishops, and  there  is  nothing  to  show  how  often  they 
made  use  of  their  residence  at  Bishopthorpe. 

After  the  death  of  Archbishop  Ludham  in  1265 
the  see  was  vacant  for  more  than  a  year,  during 
which    time    the    manor-house  would   devolve   upon 

^  Matthew  Paris  (Rolls  Ser.),  v.  516. 


40         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

the  Chapter  according  to  the  charter  of  Archbishop 
Gray. 

In  October  1266  Walter  GifFard  was  translated 
to  York  from  the  bishopric  of  Bath  and  Wells.  He 
was  at  that  time  Lord  Chancellor  of  England,  but  gave 
up  the  appointment  on  his  promotion.  He  presided 
over  the  see  until  his  death  in  1279,  was  "  a  strict 
and  fearless  reformer  of  abuses  in  days  when  there 
were  many  offenders  and  startling  deviations  from 
discipline  and  order,"  ^  and  seems  to  have  been  in 
every  respect  able  and  energetic  in  discharging  the 
duties  of  his  office.  From  his  register  ^  it  does  not 
appear  that  he  was  often  at  Bishopthorpe,  but  he 
dated  orders  from  the  seat  in  September  1270 
and  in  September  1275.  His  participation  in  State 
affairs  necessitated  his  frequent  absence  from  his 
diocese,  for  although  he  had  resigned  the  chancellor- 
ship he  continued  to  be  a  member  of  the  royal 
council  after  he  became  archbishop,  and  his  presence 
was  constantly  required  in  London  and  the  south 
of  England. 

His  successor,  Archbishop  William  Wickwaine, 
was  a  man  whose  stern  and  unyielding  nature  spared 
neither  himself  nor  others.  He  took  as  little  part 
as  possible  in  public  affairs,  and  during  his  six  years' 
tenure  of  the  archiepiscopate  devoted  himself  to  his 
province.  His  itinerary,  which  is  shown  by  his 
register,^  proves  that  he  constantly  resided  at  Bishop- 
thorpe, the  quiet  riverside  mansion  being  no  doubt 
agreeable  to  his  austere  and  thrifty  disposition.  It 
is  possible  that  he  was  here  visited  at  least  on  one 
occasion  by  Edward  I.,  who  seems  to  have  been  at 
Bishopthorpe  on   12th  January   1284.* 

*  Raine,  Fasti  Ebor.,  304.  ^  Printed  by  the  Surtees  Society. 

^  Printed  by  the  Surtees  Society.  *  Cal.  Close  R.,  1279-88,  p.  286. 


BISHOPTHORPE  41 

In  1283,  actuated  probably  by  his  own  experience 
of  want  of  money  when  he  became  primate,  Arch- 
bishop Wickwaine  made  a  wise  and  useful  provision  by 
arranging  that  each  archbishop  should  leave  a  certain 
quantity  of  stock  on  his  several  estates  for  the  benefit 
of  his  successor. 

After  his  death  in  August  1285  the  king  seems 
to  have  taken  possession  of  the  Bishopthorpe  estate, 
together  with  the  rest  of  the  property  of  the  see, 
but  a  claim  was  evidently  made  against  him  by  the 
Dean  and  Chapter,  and  it  was  delivered  up  to  them 
in  October  of  that  year.^ 

The  same  thing  occurred  after  the  death  of  the 
next  archbishop,  John  Romanus,  or  Le  Romeyn, 
who  occupied  the  see  from  1286  to  1296.  An 
inquiry  into  the  case  was  made,  and  the  ordinance 
of  Archbishop  Gray  recited,  whereupon  the  king 
commanded  John  de  Lythegrenes,  the  guardian  of 
the  archbishopric  of  York,  *'  not  to  intermeddle 
further  with  the  manor  of  Thorpe  St,  Andrew." " 

Romanus  as  archbishop  conscientiously  discharged 
the  duties  of  his  office,  and  all  accounts  show  him 
to  have  been  a  great  student  and  theologian,  but  he 
was  constantly  involved  in  some  quarrel,  and  was  a  prey 
to  the  vice  of  avarice.  According  to  the  York  his- 
torian, Thomas  Stubbs,  however,  he  was  hospitable 
and  munificent  beyond  all  his  predecessors  or  successors, 
kept  up  a  great  revenue,  and  was  always  zealous  for 
the  welfare  of  the  Church."  He  left  little  wealth, 
and  died  in  the  king's  debt. 

Although  his  successor,  Henry  de  Newark,  was 
elected  to  the  archbishopric  in  1296,  he  was  not 
consecrated   until    1298,  and    died    in    the    following 

'  CaL  Close  R.,  1279-88,  p.  379.  '^  Ibid.,  1288-96,  p.  486. 

^  Historians  of  the  Church  of  York  (Rolls  Ser. ),  ii.  409. 


42         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

year.  A  short  vacancy  followed,  and  it  again  appears 
to  have  been  necessary  to  release  the  guardians  of  the 
archbishopric  from  any  responsibility  with  regard  to 
Bishopthorpe/  The  Dean  and  Chapter  took  pos- 
session until  the  election  of  the  new  archbishop, 
Thomas  de  Corbridge,  who  survived  only  until  1304. 
During  his  tenure  of  office  the  city  of  York  became 
a  place  of  great  importance,  owing  to  the  northern 
war,  which  was  raging  furiously.  The  royal  family 
were  frequently  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  it  is  very 
probable  that  they  visited  the  archbishop's  seat  at 
Bishopthorpe,  although  no  record  has  been  found 
to  prove  this.  Among  the  extracts  made  by  Canon 
Raine  from  the  register  of  Archbishop  Corbridge  is 
a  mandate  directed  to  the  vicar  of  Bishopthorpe,  and 
dated  15th  February  1303,  against  certain  persons 
who  had  broken  into  the  treasury  there  and  "  carried 
away,  among  other  things,  charters  and  memorials 
relating  to  our  Church." 

In  December  1304  William  de  Grenfeud,  or  Green- 
field, a  man  distinguished  as  a  scholar  and  a  prelate 
as  well  as  a  courtier  and  a  statesman,  was  nominated 
to  the  see  of  York.  The  Scotch  wars  continued  to 
necessitate  the  constant  residence  of  the  court  at 
York,  which  increased  on  the  one  hand  the  political 
importance  of  the  archbishop,  but  on  the  other  his 
anxieties  and  expenditure.  In  1309  he  was  obliged  to 
raise  one  hundred  men  on  his  manor  of  Hexham  for 
service  against  the  invaders,  and  about  the  same  time 
was  requested  by  King  Edward  II.  to  entertain  at  his 
house  at  Bishopthorpe  his  nephew  Gilbert  de  Clare, 
Earl  of  Gloucester  and  Hertford,  who  afterwards  fell 
at  Bannockburn — no  small  matter  when  the  number 
who    would   be    included    in    his   train  is  considered. 

1  Cal.  Close  R.,  1296- 1302,  p.  268. 


BISHOPTHORPE  43 

However,  as  a  compensation  for  this  last  exaction, 
the  king  assured  him  that  it  should  not  be  a  prece- 
dent for  imposing  a  similar  charge  upon  him  and 
the  Church  of  St.  Peter  of  York  on  any  future 
occasion.^  This  hospitality  was  no  doubt  the  cause 
of  the  necessary  repair  of  the  manor-house,  for  which, 
as  well  as  for  the  repair  of  his  palace  at  York,  the 
archbishop  furnished  sufficient  money  to  the  cus- 
todian in  1310.^  He  was  again  directed  to  provide 
men  for  Scotland  in  1311.^  Three  years  later,  when 
the  king  fled  to  York  after  the  fatal  battle  of  Bannock- 
burn,  he  was  entertained  in  the  archbishop's  palace 
in  that  city.  Greenfield  was  foremost  among  those 
who  attempted  to  rescue  England  from  her  mis- 
fortunes, and  in  131 5  was  excused  from  Parliament, 
as  he  was  engaged  in  defending  the  marches  against 
the  Scots. 

During  the  war  the  archbishop  had  been  called 
upon  to  take  a  very  unwelcome  part  in  the  suppression 
of  the  Knights  Templars  who  had  been  attacked  by 
Clement  V.  In  13 10  and  131 1  he  was  obliged  to 
proceed  against  the  noble  brotherhood,  but  showed 
his  sympathy  with  them  by  every  means  in  his  power. 
He  was  present  at  the  Council  of  Vienne,  where  the 
Order  was  finally  dissolved  in  1 312,  and  in  the  autumn 
of  that  year  announced  through  his  official  at  York 
that  it  no  longer  existed. 

Greenfield  died  at  his  manor-house  at  Cawood,  in 
1 31 5,  and  was  buried  in  the  eastern  side  of  the  north 
transept  of  York  Minster,  under  a  striking  though  now 
much  defaced  monument. 

The  archbishopric  was  vacant  for  nearly  two  years 
after  his  death,  as  the  consecration  of  his  successor, 
William  de  Melton,  was  delayed  until  September  131 7, 

1  Cat,  Pat.  R.,  1307-13,  p.  195.        2  Raine,  op.  cit.,  390,  ^  Ibid.,  368. 


44         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

owing,  it  seems,  partly  to  the  death  of  Clement  V.  and 
partly  to  intrigues  among  the  cardinals.  In  the  mean- 
time the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  York,  whose  claim 
was  admitted  by  the  king  in  1316,^  entered  into  the 
Bishopthorpe  estate  until  the  new  primate  took  posses- 
sion of  it.  During  his  tenure  of  office,  which  lasted 
for  nearly  twenty-three  years,  he  was  often  visited  by 
royalty  at  this  manor-house,  particularly  in  1322  and 
1323  by  Edward  11.,^  with  whom  he  was  a  special 
favourite,  and  who  speaks  of  him  as  having  been  in  his 
service  from  his  boyhood. 

Melton,  although  of  humble  birth,  was  a  man  of 
great  ability  and  untiring  energy.  From  the  accession 
of  Edward  II.  until  131 5  he  was  comptroller  of  the 
king's  wardrobe,  and  held  several  other  civil  appoint- 
ments, at  the  same  time  receiving  a  variety  of  ecclesias- 
tical preferments.  His  nomination  to  the  see  of  York 
was  due  to  royal  influence,  and  in  this,  as  in  all  other 
capacities,  he  justified  the  confidence  which  Edward 
placed  in  him,  proving  himself  not  only  a  diplomatic 
statesman  but  a  wise  and  able  churchman.  The  war 
with  Scotland  engaged  a  large  share  of  his  attention, 
and  he  is  said  to  have  personally  taken  part  in  the 
famous  "White  Battle  of  Myton  "  of  131 9,  where 
invaders  and  prelates  met  in  desperate  combat,  and 
where  the  latter  were  finally  entirely  routed. 

The  English  reverses  at  last  led  to  a  treaty  of  peace 
with  the  Scots,  which  was  arranged  at  Bishopthorpe  on 
30th  May  1323.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Henry 
de  Beaumont,  a  member  of  the  king's  council,  was 
guilty  of  great  rudeness  and  flippancy  when  called 
upon  to  discuss  the  truce.  "  When  the  king  enjoined 
each  of  those  present  singly,  including  Henry,  to  give 

^  Cal.  Close  R.,  1313-18,  p.  259. 

*  Cal.  Pat.  R.  ;  Cal.  Close  R. ;  Cal.  Chart.  R.  Edw.  l\.  passim. 


BISHOPTHORPE  45 

their  advice,  the  said  Henry,  with  an  excessive  motion 
and  irreverent  mind,  answered  the  king  frequently  that 
he  would  not  counsel  him  in  this  behalf.  The  king, 
being  moved  by  such  an  answer,  ordered  him  to  leave 
his  council,  and  Henry  in  leaving  the  council  said  as 
he  had  said  before,  and  that  it  would  please  him  more 
to  be  absent  from  the  council  than  to  be  present. 
Whereupon  the  king  ordered  the  magnates  and  others 
of  his  council  to  advise  him  concerning  doing  judgment 
on  Henry  in  this  behalf,  especially  as  Henry  was  his 
liege  man  and  baron  and  was  sworn  of  his  secret  council, 
and  was  required  to  advise  the  king  upon  such  an 
arduous  matter  specially  touching  the  king  and  his 
realm."  ^  The  result  of  his  childish  behaviour  was 
that  Henry  was  committed  to  prison  for  contempt 
and  disobedience.  The  deliberations  were  carried  on 
without  him,  and  the  king  on  the  same  day  ordered 
a  thirteen  years'  truce  with  the  Scots  to  be  proclaimed 
and  observed."'  The  court  was  still  at  Bishopthorpe  on 
6th  June  when  the  king  wrote  from  here  to  Charles, 
Count  of  Valois,  concerning  a  marriage  between  his 
eldest  son  Edward  and  the  count's  daughter.^ 

The  last  unhappy  days  of  Edward  II.  were  a 
source  of  great  distress  to  the  archbishop,  and  although 
he  continued  at  court  he  refused  to  attend  the  coro- 
nation of  Edward  III.  Later  on,  however,  he  seems 
to  have  accepted  the  new  government,  and  although 
accused  of  complicity  in  the  plot  headed  by  Edmund, 
Earl  of  Kent,  he  was  acquitted.  During  the  young 
king's  expedition  to  the  north  in  1327,  Archbishop 
Melton  entertained  the  queen-mother  and  her  younger 
children   in  his  palace  at  York,  and  assisted  the  cor- 

1  Cal.  Close  R.,  131S-23,  p.  717. 

-  Ibid.,  p.  718  ;  Cal.  Pat.  R.,  1321-24,  p.  264. 

^  Cal.  Close  R.,  1318-23,  p.  713. 


46         EPISCOPAL    PALACES   OF   YORK 

poration  to  erect  fortifications  to  safeguard  the  city. 
When  the  army  returned  he  was  appointed  by  the  king 
to  treat  for  peace  with  Scotland.  With  the  Bishop  of 
Ely  he  officiated  at  the  marriage  of  Edward  III.  with 
Philippa  of  Hainault,  which  took  place  in  York  Minster 
in  1328,  and  which  caused  such  a  tumult  of  joy. 

A  pathetic  event,  illustrating  the  severity  of  the 
age,  is  connected  with  Bishopthorpe,  and  may  be  re- 
lated here,  as  it  occurred  about  this  time.  It  appears 
that  a  little  girl  of  under  eleven  years  of  age  was  accused 
of  robbery  in  the  village,  and  being  brought  before  the 
steward  and  marshals  of  the  household  was  convicted 
and  "  committed  to  the  prison  of  the  Marshalsea  until 
of  an  age  to  undergo  judgment."  Afterwards,  how- 
ever, on  the  intercession  of  Queen  Philippa,  she  was 
pardoned  "  in  consideration  of  her  tender  age."  ^ 
When  it  is  remembered  that  in  those  days  hanging 
was  the  punishment  for  theft,  the  barbarous  cruelty 
of  imprisoning  a  little  child  until  she  should  be  old 
enough  to  be  tried  for  her  life  is  almost  incredible ! 

Archbishop  Melton's  official  life  was  drawing  to  a 
close.  In  1331  he  was  appointed  a  justiciar  for  enforcing 
observance  of  the  truce  with  Scotland,  and  in  the  follow- 
ing year  was  empowered  to  open  Parliament  at  York. 
His  last  recorded  trust  in  connection  with  the  State  was 
the  committal  to  his  keeping  of  the  Great  Seal  during 
the  temporary  absence  of  the  Bishop  of  Winchester,  then 
chancellor.  He  had  more  than  once  had  charge  of  it  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  II.,  and  on  this  occasion  it  appears 
that  he  received  it  in  the  bag  which  customarily  pro- 
tected it,  under  the  seal  of  the  bishop,  and  took  it  with 
him  to  Bishopthorpe."  The  primate  survived  until 
1 340,  passing  away  at  Cawood  in  April  of  that  year. 

Numerous    extracts    have    been    made    from    his 

1  Cal.  Pat,  J?.,  1327-30,  p.  257.  -  Ca/.  Close  R.,  1333-37,  p.  129. 


BISHOPTHORPE  47 

register  by  Canon  Raine,  which  throw  much  light  on 
the  variety  of  his  duties.  He  kept  up  the  state  which 
befitted  his  position,  and  although  he  has  never  been 
accused  of  oppressing  the  poor,  he  accumulated  con- 
siderable wealth,  and  was  lavish  in  his  expenditure  and 
in  charitable  gifts.  It  was  found,  however,  after  his 
death  that  he  had  allowed  the  episcopal  residences  to 
become  more  or  less  dilapidated.  One  of  the  most 
striking  examples  of  his  generosity  was  his  munificence 
to  York  Minster,  to  which  large  additions  were  made 
during  his  archiepiscopate. 

His  successor,  William  la  Zouche,  was  a  member 
of  an  illustrious  family,  as  his  name  is  sufficient  to 
prove,  although  his  parentage  is  not  actually  estab- 
lished. His  relations  with  Edward  III.  were  cordial, 
and  he  received  many  civil  and  ecclesiastical  appoint- 
ments, among  them  the  treasurership ;  but  when  he 
became  a  candidate  for  the  archbishopric  of  York,  he 
was  nevertheless  strenuously  opposed  by  the  king, 
who  nominated  his  secretary  and  favourite,  William 
de  Kildesby.  The  contest,  which  was  referred  to  the 
Pope,  delayed  a  settlement  for  two  years,  but  Zouche 
was  at  last  consecrated  by  Clement  VI.  at  Avignon  on 
7th  July  1342,  and  in  the  following  December  was 
enthroned  in  his  cathedral.  An  entry  in  the  register 
of  the  see  transcribed  by  Canon  Raine  authorises  the 
receiver  at  York  to  pay  the  money  required  "  to  repair 
our  houses  at  York  to  be  ready  for  our  installation 
banquet."  ^  The  archbishop's  wisdom  and  modera- 
tion in  dealing  with  matters  connected  with  his  pro- 
vince must  have  been  unusually  great,  for,  as  has 
been  observed,  "  his  was  essentially  a  reign  of  peace, 
and  no  controversy  seems  to  have  disturbed  it."^ 
Nothing  even  is  heard  of  the  immemorial  contention 

^  Raine,  op.  czL,  443.  *  Ibid.,  442. 


48         EPISCOPAL    PALACES   OF   YORK 

between  the  Primates  of  York  and  Canterbury  with 
respect  to  the  carrying  erect  of  the  separate  crosses  of 
each  in  the  province  of  the  other. 

The  first  few  years  of  Zouche's  primacy  seem  to 
have  been  occupied  by  him  in  discharging  the  duties  of 
his  office.  His  temporary  retirement  from  State  ajffairs 
was  possibly  due  to  the  cloud  which  had  arisen  between 
him  and  the  king  on  account  of  his  election,  but  sub- 
sequent difficulties  with  the  ever-restless  Scots  soon 
proved  to  Edward  that  the  northern  primate  was 
indispensable,  not  only  as  a  prelate,  but  as  a  warrior. 
In  1346  he  was  made  one  of  the  wardens  of  the 
marches  while  the  king  was  pursuing  the  French 
campaign,  and  was  appointed  a  Commissioner  of  Array 
for  the  northern  army.  When  the  Scots  invaded 
England  in  the  autumn  of  that  year  the  archbishop 
unhesitatingly  took  the  field,  and,  cheering  on  his 
men  by  prayers  and  benedictions,  led  them  on  to  the 
victory  of  Neville's  Cross,  which  so  signally  wiped  out 
the  disgrace  of  his  predecessor's  defeat  at  Myton. 
Queen  Philippa  is  also  said  to  have  been  present  at 
this  famous  battle,  where  David  Bruce,  the  King  of  the 
Scots,  was  taken  prisoner,  Drake  says  of  her  that 
"  though  a  woman,  she  showed  in  this  case  such 
courage  and  conduct  as  was  worthy  the  wife  and 
mother  of  such  a  husband  and  son.  She  got  what 
forces  she  could  together  at  York,  and  thence  marched 
in  person  with  them  against  the  enemy."  ^  The  king 
showed  his  gratitude  to  the  archbishop  by  begging 
him  to  continue  his  successful  guardianship  of  the 
marches,  and  in  November  1350  granted  him  a 
general  pardon  on  account  of  the  magnitude  of  his 
services.  The  archbishop,  who  had  been  for  some 
time  suffering  from  a  serious  disease,  died  at  Cawood 

^  Eboracum,  105. 


BISHOPTHORPE  49 

in  July  1352.  He  was  interred  in  the  nave  of  his 
cathedral  instead  of  in  the  chapel  there  which  he  had 
begun  to  build,  and  in  which  he  desired  to  have  been 
laid  to  rest.  His  relatives  appear  to  have  been  most 
negligent  as  to  his  last  wishes,  and  in  1353  his 
successor.  Archbishop  Thoresby,  was  obliged  to  order 
an  inquiry  concerning  the  dilapidations  of  the  houses 
and  woods  belonging  to  the  see,  and  the  damages  done 
by  his  executors. 

The  new  primate,  John  de  Thoresby,  has  been 
described  as  "  one  of  those  great  and  good  men  who 
were  the  glory  of  the  fourteenth  century,"  ^  He  was 
a  scholar  and  a  man  of  taste,  and  is  noted  for  the 
encouragement  he  gave  to  learning  in  an  age  which 
was  decadent  in  manners  and  morals,  for  the  disin- 
terestedness of  his  public  service,  and  for  the  ardour 
and  piety  of  his  private  life.  At  an  early  age  he  won 
distinction  as  a  lawyer,  and  while  merely  an  acolyte  he 
was  instituted  to  a  benefice  in  Yorkshire.  Archbishop 
Melton  became  one  of  his  patrons,  and  he  obtained 
rapid  preferment.  His  connection  with  the  primate 
no  doubt  brought  him  into  notice  at  court,  and  he 
was  frequently  employed  in  State  affairs,  was  appointed 
Master  of  the  Rolls  in  1341,  given  temporary  charge 
of  the  Great  Seal  in  1343,  and  appointed  to  the  chan- 
cellorship in  1 349,  a  few  months  before  he  was  trans- 
lated from  the  bishopric  of  St.  David's  to  that  of 
Worcester.  Almost  immediately  after  the  death  of 
Archbishop  Zouche,  in  1352,  the  Chapter  of  York 
unanimously  elected  Thoresby  to  fill  the  vacant  post, 
and  he  was  appointed  by  the  Pope  in  October  of  that 
year.  He  had  already  found  that  his  civil  duties 
absorbed  too  much  of  the  time  and  attention  he 
wished  to  devote  to  his  bishopric,  and  on  his  acces- 

^  Raine,  op-  cit.,  449. 

D 


50         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

sion  to  the  primacy  he  determined  to  dissociate  him- 
self as  soon  as  possible  from  State  affairs.  He  resigned 
the  Great  Seal  in  1356,  and  in  that  year  evidently  took 
up  a  more  permanent  residence  at  York,  the  ceremonial 
of  his  numerous  ordinations  usually  taking  place  either 
in  the  Minster  or  at  Bishopthorpe.  Thomas  Stubbs 
describes  Thoresby  as  a  great  peacemaker.  "  Idem 
vero  archiepiscopus  lites  et  contentiones  ubique  dele- 
vit."  ^  One  of  his  first  acts  as  primate  was  to  settle 
the  ancient  dispute  between  Canterbury  and  York  as 
to  the  right  of  bearing  the  cross,  and  an  agreement 
was  entered  into  at  Westminster  in  April  1353,  and 
confirmed  by  the  Pope  in  1354,  by  which  certain 
distinctions  were  made  between  the  two  archbishops 
and  their  relative  status  defined,  on  the  whole  in 
favour  of  Canterbury,  but  each  was  to  be  allowed 
henceforward  to  carry  his  cross  erect  in  the  province 
of  the  other. 

In  all  his  dealings  Thoresby  was  animated  by  a  brave 
and  earnest  spirit,  and  waged  war  against  the  ignorance 
and  vice  of  the  age.  He  ordered  an  exposition  of  the 
Creed,  the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Seven  Sacraments, 
Seven  Deeds  of  Mercy,  Seven  Virtues,  and  Seven 
Deadly  Sins,  to  be  drawn  up  and  issued  both  in 
Latin  and  in  English  for  the  edification  of  the  clergy 
as  well  as  the  laity.  The  English  version  is  printed  in 
the  Vicaria  Leodensis  -  of  Ralph  Thoresby,  who  ob- 
serves that  "  we  may  justly  admire  that  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  III.  the  courage  and  piety  of  one  man 
should  accomplish  what  could  not  without  much 
difficulty  and  bloodshed  be  effected  in  Henry  VIII.'s 
reign,  when  it  was  indulged  by  Act  of  Parliament  as  a 
special  favour  that  a  nobleman  and  gentleman  might 

1  Historians  of  the  Chtirch  of  York  (Rolls  Ser.),  ii.  420. 

2  Pp.  213-35. 


BISHOPTHORPE  5 1 

have  the  Bible  read  in  their  houses ;  that  noble  ladies, 
gentlemen,  and  merchants  might  read  it  themselves, 
but  no  men  or  women  under  that  degree.  Nor  could 
the  Bible  be  read  in  English  in  any  church,  nor  so 
much  as  in  private  by  any  artificer  or  husband- 
man, &c." 

The  completion  of  York  Minster  was  one  of 
Archbishop  Thoresby's  special  aims.  He  gave  several 
large  sums  of  money  to  the  fabric  fund,  and  in  1361 
caused  his  manor-house  at  Sherburn  to  be  pulled  down 
to  provide  the  Minster  with  stones.  He  also  con- 
structed a  Lady-chapel,  dedicated  to  the  Blessed  Virgin, 
in  which  he  safeguarded  the  remains  of  six  of  his 
predecessors. 

Bishopthorpe  was  apparently  one  of  his  favourite 
habitations,  and  in  i  364-65  he  added  a  new  chamber  to 
the  building.  He  was  taken  ill  at  this  house  in  the 
autumn  of  1373,  and  on  i  2th  September  he  summoned 
a  notary  to  his  bedchamber  to  draw  up  his  will.  He 
died  here  on  6th  November,  and  was  buried  in  the 
Lady-chapel  at  York  which  he  had  erected.  The 
good  archbishop  must  have  been  sorely  missed, 
especially  as  his  successor  proved  a  contrast  to  him- 
self in  every  way. 

From  the  accounts  of  him  that  exist,  it  may  be 
inferred  that  Alexander  Nevill,  who  belonged  to  a 
powerful  northern  family,  paid  little  attention  to  his 
province,  was  dictatorial  and  overbearing,  and  con- 
stantly engaged  in  dissensions.  Immediately  on  his 
arrival  at  York,  after  his  consecration  in  1374,  he 
quarrelled  with  the  Dean  and  Chapter.  He  also 
quarrelled  with  the  citizens  of  York,  and  with  the 
canons  of  the  collegiate  churches  of  Beverley  and 
Ripon.  During  his  primacy,  although  he  did,  it  is  true, 
make  several  presentations  to  the   church,  nothing  was 


52         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

done  towards  the  building  of  the  new  choir  in  the 
Minster.  He  was  a  trusted  friend  of  the  headstrong 
young  king,  and  was  perpetually  at  court,  to  the  great 
annoyance  of  Gloucester's  party.  Richard  was  at  last 
obliged  to  give  way  to  the  latter,  and  promised  that 
the  archbishop  and  his  other  advisers  should  be  called 
to  account.  Upon  this  Nevill  escaped  to  Flanders, 
and,  after  having  been  pronounced  guilty  by  the  next 
Parliament,  was  outlawed  and  deprived.  He  ended 
his  days  as  a  parish  priest  at  Louvain. 

Archbishop  Nevill  seems  to  have  taken  some 
interest  in  the  residences  of  the  see.  He  repaired  his 
castle  at  Cawood,  added  new  towers,  and  gave  two 
small  bells  to  the  chapel.  At  Bishopthorpe  he  evi- 
dently entertained  the  king,  as  in  1383  stonemasons, 
carpenters,  and  other  workmen  were  sent  at  the 
primate's  expense  to  repair  the  house  preparatory  to 
a  royal  visit. ^  The  king  was  again  at  York  in  1385 
on  his  way  to  Scotland,  and  the  visit  is  memorable  for 
a  sad  event,  which  took  place  "  in  the  fields  near 
Bishopthorpe."  ^ 

The  incident  is  thus  graphically  described  by 
Raine :  "  A  quarrel  began  between  the  retainers  of 
Sir  John  Holland,  the  king's  half-brother,  and  those 
of  Sir  Ralph  Stafford,  the  son  and  heir  of  the  Earl  of 
Stafford.  One  of  Holland's  servants  was  killed  by  an 
arrow,  and  when  his  master  heard  the  news,  he  rushed 
wildly  out  of  his  lodging,  eager  for  revenge.  Young 
Stafford,  who  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  brawl,  un- 
happily came  in  his  way,  and  was  at  once  killed.  The 
slayer  fled  to  Beverley  for  sanctuary,  and  the  king 
deprived  him  of  his  offices  and  lands,  and  banished 
him  from  the  kingdom.  Holland's  mother,  the  Fair 
Maid  of  Kent,  was  so  troubled  at  the  disaster  that  she 

^  Cal.  Pat.  R.,  1381-85,  p.  297.  *  Drake,  op.  cit.,  105. 


BISHOPTHORPE  53 

took  to  her  bed  and  died  in  four  or  five  days.  He  was 
afterwards  pardoned  at  the  intervention  of  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster." 

On  one  occasion,  while  the  archbishop  was  "  busy 
with  the  affairs  of  the  realm  at  the  king's  side,"  his 
palace  at  York  and  his  manor-houses  at  Bishopthorpe 
and  Cawood  were  broken  into  by  robbers,  who  took 
away  property  to  the  value  of  ;^  1000,  and  so  threatened 
his  servants  that  they  dared  not  serve  him.  The  arch- 
bishop lodged  a  complaint  against  the  evil-doers  in 
1386,  and  the  king  issued  a  commission  of  inquiry  into 
the  affair — with  what  result  has  not  been  ascertained.! 

After  the  flight  of  Alexander  Nevill  the  see  was 
vacated  by  the  action  of  the  Pope,  who  translated  him 
to  St.  Andrews,  thus  depriving  him  in  effect  of  any 
benefice  whatever,  as  the  Scots  upheld  the  schismatic 
Pope  Clement  VII.,  and  refused  to  acknowledge  the 
authority  of  Urban  VI.  In  April  1388  the  chancellor, 
Thomas  Arundel,  third  son  of  the  Earl  of  Arundel, 
was  appointed  to  the  archbishopric  of  York.  He  had 
been  consecrated  to  the  bishopric  of  Ely  when  only 
in  his  twenty-second  year,  probably  through  the  in- 
fluence of  the  noble  family  to  which  he  belonged.  He 
had  but  a  few  years'  connection  with  the  northern 
province,  as  he  was  translated  to  the  see  of  Canterbury 
in  1396.  Whilst  at  York  he  is  said  to  have  been 
a  great  benefactor  to  the  church  and  manors  of  the 
see,  spending  a  great  deal  on  building  and  on  the 
repair  of  the  several  archiepiscopal  houses.-  He  also 
made  his  first  attempt  to  stem  the  tide  of  LoUardism, 
against  which  he  waged  war  throughout  his  life.  The 
removal  of  the  Courts  of  King's  Bench,  Common  Pleas, 
and  Exchequer  from  London  to  York  in  1392  is  some- 
times attributed   to  the   influence   of  the    archbishop, 

^  Cal.  Pat.  i?.,  1385-89,  p.  172.  "  Drake,  op.  cit.,  436. 


54         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

who  was  desirous    of  promoting   the  interests  of  his 
cathedral  city. 

The  successor  of  Archbishop  Arundel  was  Robert 
Waldby,  who  in  early  life  is  reputed  to  have  been 
a  monk,  but  having  gone  abroad  in  the  train  of  the 
Black  Prince,  he  pursued  his  education  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Toulouse,  where  he  studied  languages,  natural 
and  moral  philosophy,  and  theology,  and  where  he  was 
finally  appointed  professor  of  divinity.  Prince  Edward, 
who  was  always  a  patron  of  learning,  gave  him  his  first 
preferment  to  the  bishopric  of  Ayre  in  Aquitaine.  In 
1390  or  1 39 1  he  was  translated  to  the  archbishopric  of 
Dublin,  and  subsequently  became  Chancellor  of  Ireland, 
and  in  1395  he  was  transferred  to  Chichester,  In  the 
following  year  he  was  promoted  to  the  see  of  York, 
but  his  tenure  of  office  was  brief,  as  he  died  a  few 
months  later. 

The  name  of  the  next  archbishop,  Richard  le 
Scrope,  will  ever  be  associated  with  Bishopthorpe, 
owing  to  its  great  hall  having  been  the  scene  of  the 
tragic  circumstances  connected  with  his  death.  The 
archbishop,  who  was  a  member  of  a  powerful  York- 
shire family,  owed  all  his  preferments,  including  his 
promotion  to  the  northern  primacy,  to  Richard  II.,  and 
although  he  seems  reluctantly  to  have  assented  to  the 
king's  deposition,  his  loyalty  to  Henry  IV.  rested  on  no 
sure  foundation,  and  he  was  easily  though  unhappily 
persuaded  to  join  the  rising  in  the  north  organised  by 
Northumberland,  Mowbray,  and  others.  Scrope  was 
a  man  of  high  character,  and  there  is  no  reason  to 
doubt  the  integrity  of  his  motives.  He  was  evidently 
actuated  by  hopes  of  reform  when  he  published  ten 
articles  against  the  king,  and  authorised  them  to  be 
affixed  to  the  doors  of  the  churches  in  York  and  other 
places.     Numbers  flocked   armed   into  the    city,   and 


BISHOPTHORPE  55 

were  cheered  and  encouraged  by  the  archbishop,  who 
led  out  his  "  priestly  rout "  to  join  the  forces  of  the 
discontented  nobles.  They  encountered  the  royal 
army  at  Shipton  Moor  on  29th  May  1405,  but  being 
deceived  by  the  treachery  of  Westmorland,  or,  accord- 
ing to  some  accounts,  of  Lord  FitzHugh,  the  arch- 
bishop agreed  to  a  conference,  and  his  followers  dis- 
persed. Scrope,  now  at  the  mercy  of  his  enemies,  was 
immediately  arrested  and  hurried  with  his  confederates 
to  Pontefract  Castle,  and  from  thence  to  Bishopthorpe, 
where  they  were  kept  as  prisoners  until  8th  June,  the 
day  fixed  by  the  king  for  their  trial.  The  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  hastened  to  the  scene,  and  arriving  on 
the  same  morning  thrust  himself  into  the  royal  pre- 
sence to  plead  for  his  brother  primate.  Nothing, 
however,  would  satisfy  the  revengeful  king  but  the 
immediate  execution  of  Scrope,  and  he  called  together 
the  commission  which  he  had  appointed  in  the  great 
dining-hall,  where  his  prisoner  was  made  to  stand 
bareheaded  before  his  accusers.  It  was  in  vain  that 
the  Chief  Justice  Gascoigne  absolutely  declined  to  take 
part  in  the  sacrilegious  act,  bravely  answering  Henry's 
command  to  pronounce  sentence  against  him  by  these 
words :  "  Neither  you,  my  lord  the  king,  nor  any 
liege  man  of  yours  in  your  name,  can  legally,  accord- 
ing to  the  rights  of  the  kingdom,  adjudge  any  bishop 
to  death."  The  king,  greatly  incensed,  ordered  Sir 
William  Fulthorpe,  a  man  learned  in  the  law  but  no 
judge,  to  act  as  president,  and  he,  mounting  on  a  high 
stage  erected  in  the  hall,  declared  the  archbishop  a 
traitor,  and  condemned  him  to  death.  The  protesta- 
tions of  the  primate,  who  asserted  that  his  sole  desire 
in  joining  the  conspiracy  had  been  to  defend  his  people 
against  oppression,  were  unheeded,  and  divested  of  his 
episcopal  attire  he  was  "  set  on   a   sorry  horse  of  the 


S6         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

value  of  forty  pence,  without  a  saddle,  and  with  his 
face  to  the  tail,  and  was  led  in  this  manner  to  the 
place  of  his  execution,"  ^  a  field  of  barley  between 
Bishopthorpe  and  York.  There  he  knelt  down,  and, 
after  asking  the  pardon  of  God  for  all  his  sins, 
bestowed  his  forgiveness  upon  the  executioner,  and 
desired  him  to  give  him  five  blows  with  his  sword,  in 
commemoration  of  the  five  chief  wounds  of  our  Lord. 
His  last  words  were,  "  Into  Thy  hands,  O  most  sweet 
Jesus,  I  commend  my  spirit,"  and  the  executioner  then 
with  five  strokes  severed  his  head  from  his  body. 

The  crime  struck  horror  throughout  the  land. 
Portents  are  said  to  have  followed  his  death,  and  the 
king  was  attacked  with  leprosy  the  same  night.  Dr. 
Stubbs  writes  of  the  occurrence :  "  English  history 
recorded  no  parallel  event;  the  death  of  Becket,  the 
work  of  four  unauthorised,  excited  assassins,  is  thrown 
into  the  shade  by  the  judicial  murder  of  Scrope." 
The  archbishop's  remains  were  carried  to  the  Minster 
and  interred  in  the  Lady-chapel,  and  the  offerings 
made  at  his  shrine  were  afterwards  devoted  to  the 
rebuilding  of  the  central  tower  which  had  recently 
fallen,  so  that  "  even  in  his  death  Scrope  contributed 
to  the  upraising  of  that  glorious  edifice  which  he  had 
never  neglected  during  his  life."  It  was  during  his 
archiepiscopate  that  the  rebuilding  of  the  choir  was 
resumed  and  completed.  After  his  death  the  see 
remained  vacant  for  two  and  a  half  years.  At  last, 
after  some  divergence  of  opinion  between  the  Dean 
and  Chapter,  the  Pope,  and  the  king  as  to  a  suitable 
candidate,  Henry  Bowett,  the  king's  nominee,  was 
appointed,  and  occupied  the  primacy  until  1423. 
Before  his  accession  he  had  been  the  king's  confidential 
agent,  and  served  him  in  various  capacities,  but  after 

^  Drake,  o/>.  cit.  438-39. 


BISHOPTHORPE  57 

his  translation  to  York  he  retired  from  public  affairs, 
and  occupied  himself  with  the  duties  connected  with 
his  province.  "  With  Henry  Bowett,"  says  Raine,  "  a 
new  era  begins  in  the  registers  of  the  archbishops." 
Henceforward,  until  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
"  they  contained  little  more  than  the  ordinary  procedure 
of  the  diocese."  1  One  act  of  bravery  and  patriotism 
in  his  old  age  has  been  recorded.  In  141 7,  when  the 
king  was  absent  in  Normandy  and  the  Scots  seized 
the  opportunity  to  invade  England,  the  archbishop, 
although  so  infirm  that  he  had  to  be  carried  in  a  chair, 
determined  to  accompany  the  army  of  defence,  and  by 
his  courageous  example  and  exhortations  contributed 
not  a  little  to  their  success.  Bowett  built  the  great  hall 
at  Cawood  and  new  kitchens  at  Ottley,  but  left  no 
mark  at  Bishopthorpe.  His  will  ^  was  dated  at  this 
last  residence,  but  he  died  at  Cawood. 

The  next  archbishop,  John  Kempe,  afterwards 
made  a  cardinal,  was  too  absorbed  in  political  affairs 
to  give  much  attention  to  his  ecclesiastical  duties,  and 
seldom  visited  Yorkshire,  where  he  was  very  unpopular. 
However,  he  was  not  neglectful  of  the  manor-houses 
belonging  to  the  see,  and  although  he  did  nothing  at 
Bishopthorpe,  he  almost  entirely  rebuilt  Southwell,  and 
erected  the  gate-house  at  Cawood,  which  is  still  stand- 
ing, and  is  adorned  by  his  arms  with  the  cardinal's  hat. 
Kempe  ruled  over  the  province  from  1426  till  1452, 
when  he  was  translated  to  the  see  of  Canterbury.  A 
portrait  of  him  has  recently  been  painted  by  his  descen- 
dant, Mr.  C.  E.  Kempe,  the  well-known  artist,  and 
designer  of  the  beautiful  windows  in  the  chapel.  It 
now  hangs  in  the  dining-room  at  Bishopthorpe. 

The  career  of  William  Booth,  who  occupied  the 

^  Hist07-ical  Paper i  and  Letters  from  the  Northern  Registers  (Rolls  Ser.), 
Introd.  p.  xiv,  ^  Printed  in  Test.  Ebor,  (Surtees  Soc),  i-  398. 


58         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

see  of  York  from  1452  until  his  death  at  Southwell  in 
1464,  was  uneventful.  He  is  said  to  have  spent  a 
great  deal  of  money  in  repairing  the  palaces  of  South- 
well and  York. 

The  early  promotion  and  subsequent  misfortunes 
which  pursued  his  successor,  George  Nevill,  were 
largely  due  to  his  relationship  with  Warwick  the 
"  King-maker,"  after  whose  defection  from  the  House 
of  York  the  archbishop,  although  he  could  never  be 
persuaded  to  take  a  very  enthusiastic  part  against 
Edward  IV.,  was  naturally  regarded  by  him  with 
distrust.  George  Nevill  was  a  younger  son  of  Richard, 
Earl  of  Salisbury,  and  was  designed  for  the  Church  at 
an  early  age,  the  growing  importance  of  his  family 
assuring  him  of  speedy  advancement.  He  could  not 
have  been  more  than  fourteen  years  old  when  he  was 
collated  to  the  "  golden  prebend  "  of  Masham  in  York 
Minster.  At  the  age  of  twenty  or  twenty-one  he  was 
elected  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  a  posi- 
tion which  he  held  for  four  years,  and  when  about 
twenty-three  he  was  nominated  to  the  bishopric  of 
Exeter,  receiving  the  temporalities  of  the  see  a  year 
later,  although  his  consecration  was  delayed  until  he 
was  twenty-seven. 

In  1460  he  obtained  the  Great  Seal  in  the  name  of 
Henry  VI.,  but  on  his  transference  of  loyalty  to 
Edward  IV.  became  chancellor  to  the  new  king.  In 
1464  Nevill  was  translated  from  Exeter  to  York,  and 
was  enthroned  on  15th  January  of  the  following  year. 
On  that  day  he  gave  a  most  sumptuous  installation 
feast,  "  the  greatest  entertainment,"  says  Drake,^  "  that 
ever  subject  made."  A  list  of  the  "  monstrous  quantity 
of  edibles  "  which  has  been  preserved,^  renders  further 

'   op.  cit.,  444. 

*  Hearne,  Collections  (Oxford  Hist,  Soc),  ii.  342. 


BISHOPTHORPE  59 

comment  unnecessary!  It  comprised:  "Wheat,  300 
quarters;  Ale,  300  tunne ;  Wyne,  100  tunne ;  of 
Ipocrasse,  one  pipe;  Oxen,  104;  Wild  Bulls,  6; 
Muttons,  1000;  Veales,  304;  Porkes,  304;  Swannes, 
400;  Geese,  2000;  Capons,  1000;  Pygges,  2000; 
Plovers,  400;  Quails,  100  dozen;  of  the  Foules  called 
Rees,  200  dozen  ;  Peacocks,  104;  Mallards  and  Teals, 
4000 ;  Cranes,  204 ;  Kydds,  204 ;  Chickens,  2000 ; 
Pigeons,  4000  ;  Conies,  4000 ;  Bitterns,  204  ;  Heron- 
shawes,  400;  Fessants,  200;  Partridges,  500;  Wood- 
cocks, 400;  Curlews,  100;  Egritts,  1000;  Staggs, 
Bucks,  and  Roes,  500  and  more ;  Pasties  of  Venison 
cold,  4000;  Parted  Dishes  of  Gelly,  1000;  Plain 
Dishes  of  Gelly,  3000 ;  Cold  Tartes  baked,  4000 ; 
Cold  Custards  baked,  3000  ;  Hot  Pasties  of  Venison, 
1500;  Hot  Custards,  2000;  Pikes  and  Breams,  608; 
Porposes  and  Seals,  12  ;  Spices,  sugered  Delicates,  and 
Wafers,  plenty.  Besides  all  sort  of  fish  in  prodigious 
plenty."  Such  display  was  calculated  rather  to  impress 
the  beholders  with  the  power  and  wealth  of  the  Nevill 
family  than  with  the  piety  of  the  new  archbishop. 
The  absence  of  the  king  and  queen  from  the  banquet 
was  significant.  Stubbs,  in  commenting  upon  the 
accession  of  the  primate,  says,  "The  point  at  which 
the  fortunes  of  the  Nevills  thus  reached  their  zenith 
almost  exactly  coincides  with  the  moment  at  which 
the  political  relations  of  the  king  and  court  are  totally 
altered  by  his  marriage."  ^  The  newly-made  queen, 
Elizabeth  Wydville,  was  very  displeasing  to  the  Nevills. 
Warwick's  influence  waned  with  his  loyalty,  and  dur- 
ing his  absence  in  France  in  1467,  Edward  dealt  his 
first  blow  at  the  family  by  depriving  his  brother  of  the 
chancellorship.  In  return  Warwick  and  the  arch- 
bishop   connived    at,  if   they   did    not    instigate,    the 

^  Constitutional  Hist.,  hi.  215, 


6o         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

rebellion  which  began  in  Yorkshire  in  1469,  and  after 
the  defeat  and  capture  of  the  king  he  was  conveyed 
by  the  latter  as  a  prisoner,  first  to  Warwick  Castle  and 
then  to  Middleham  in  Yorkshire.  His  escape  is 
sometimes  attributed  to  the  courtesy  of  the  archbishop, 
"  whom  he  had  talked  over  by  fair  speeches  and  pro- 
mises," and  who  suffered  him  "  to  walk  abroad,  and 
even  to  hunt  at  his  pleasure,  with  what  number  he 
pleased  to  attend  him  "  ;  but,  however  that  may  have 
been,  the  primate  shortly  afterwards  returned  to  his 
former  allegiance,  and  after  the  flight  of  Edward  to 
Holland  in  1470,  was  again  made  chancellor  in  the 
name  of  Henry  VL 

The  following  year  was  fatal  to  the  Nevills. 
Warwick  was  killed  at  Barnet,  and  King  Henry  died 
or  was  murdered  in  the  Tower.  The  archbishop 
contrived  to  make  his  peace  with  Edward,  and  thought 
himself  restored  to  favour,  when  the  king  suddenly 
took  his  final  revenge.  He  was  invited,  or  invited 
himself,  to  hunt  at  Moor  Park,  where  Nevill  had  a 
house  which  he  had  lately  built.  "  The  archbishop 
upon  this  hastened  home  to  make  suitable  provision 
for  such  a  guest,  and  omitted  nothing  that  might  do 
the  king  honour  in  his  preparations.  Skilful  in  sump- 
tuous entertainments,  he  made  his  provision  accordingly, 
and  to  grace  it  with  proper  decorations  sent  for  all  the 
plate  he  had  in  the  world,  most  of  which  he  had  hid 
at  the  time  of  Tewkesbury  and  Barnet  fields,  and 
borrowed  also  much  of  his  friends."  ^  On  the  day 
before  the  king's  arrival  was  expected  he  summoned 
the  archbishop  to  Windsor,  where  he  was  arrested,  and 
sent,  first  to  Calais,  and  afterwards  to  the  castle  of 
Guisnes,  where  he  was  imprisoned  for  four  years.  The 
king  seized   his  estates  and  confiscated  all   his   plate, 

^  Drake,  op,  cit.,  445. 


BISHOPTHORPE  6i 

money,  furniture  and  other  movables  to  the  value  of 
;^20,ooo.  Among  them  was  a  very  precious  jewelled 
mitre,  which  Edward  broke  up  to  make  a  crown  for 
himself.  The  archbishop  was  finally  liberated  through 
the  influence  of  his  friends,  but  the  strain  of  his  cap- 
tivity had  broken  down  his  health,  and  he  returned 
to  his  see  "  with  anguish  of  heart  to  think  of  his 
former  condition,  compared  to  the  present,  having,  not- 
withstanding his  liberty,  little  left  to  support  himself  on, 
the  king  having  received  the  profits  of  his  temporalities 
during  his  confinement."  ^  Though  still  in  the  prime 
of  life,  he  died  a  few  months  later  at  Blyth  in  Northum- 
berland, worn  out  in  body  and  mind.  Foss  says  of 
him  :  ^  "  He  is  spoken  of  as  a  patron  of  scientific  men  ; 
but  no  literary  character  can  counteract  the  unfavour- 
able sentence  which  every  honest  man  must  pronounce 
against  him,  on  the  manifest  proofs  which  his  life 
offers  of  fickleness,  deceit,  and  treachery." 

Very  shortly  after  the  death  of  Nevill  the  king 
secured  the  translation  of  Lawrence  Booth,  half-brother 
of  the  former  Archbishop  Booth,  from  the  see  of 
Durham,  which  he  had  occupied  for  twenty  years, 
to  that  of  York.  He  lived  only  until  1480,  but, 
although  his  tenure  of  the  primacy  lasted  such  a  short 
time,  he  is  remembered  as  a  benefactor  to  the  see,  to 
which  he  presented  the  manor  of  Battersea  and  the 
house  that  he  built  there.  He  died  at  Southwell, 
his  favourite  residence,  and  was  buried  in  the  colle- 
giate church  by  the  side  of  his  brother.  Archbishop 
William, 

Bishopthorpe  was  one  among  many  buildings  which 
profited  during  the  archiepiscopate  of  the  succeeding 
prelate,  Thomas  Scot,  or,  as  he  is  more  commonly 
known,  Thomas  Rotheram,  the  latter  surname,  which 

^  Drake,  op.  cit.,  445.  "^Judges  of  England,  iv.  453. 


62         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

was  taken  from  the  name  of  his  birthplace,  having 
been  adopted  by  his  family,  according  to  a  custom 
which  still  appertained.  The  archbishop  left  his 
mark  in  many  places,  and  is  renowned  as  a  benefactor 
of  both  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  The  latter  university 
owes  its  library  to  him,  and  his  munificence  to  Lincoln 
College,  Oxford,  which  was  then  in  a  deplorable  con- 
dition, caused  him  to  be  styled  its  second  founder. 
His  chief  educational  foundation  was  at  Rotheram, 
where  he  established  and  richly  endowed  the  College 
of  Jesus,  which  survived  until  the  suppression  of 
chantries  under  Edward  VI.  It  was  a  noble  illus- 
tration of  his  love  of  his  birthplace  and  of  learning ; 
and  the  confiscation  of  the  greater  part  of  the  en- 
dowment is  one  of  the  disgraceful  acts  that  attended 
the  Reformation. 

After  his  translation  to  the  see  of  York,  in  1480, 
Rotheram  devoted  great  attention  to  the  manors  be- 
longing to  it.  He  erected  a  large  kitchen  at  White- 
hall, and  at  Southwell  he  built  a  pantry,  bakehouse, 
and  other  rooms  overlooking  the  river.  But  it  was 
upon  Bishopthorpe  that  he  bestowed  his  chief  care, 
and  the  first  great  addition  to  the  manor-house  since 
its  erection,  more  than  two  centuries  before,  was  due 
to  him.  He  more  than  doubled  the  accommodation 
by  adding  a  new  wing  on  the  north  side,  which  became 
the  chief  habitation  of  the  archbishops  until  the  time 
of  Drummond.  This  wing  was  afterwards  described 
by  Archbishop  Sharp,  who  says  it  included  the  apart- 
ments which  in  his  day  were  used  as  the  dining-room 
and  drawing-room,  and  his  own  study  and  bedroom, 
as  well  as  the  state  rooms,  which  accommodated  royal 
and  noble  visitors.  The  doorway  into  the  room,  which 
was  designated  "  the  hall  "  by  Sharp,  is  still  surmounted 
by  the  Rotheram  arms,  three  stags,  carved  in  stone ; 


BISHOPTHORPE  63 

and  a  shield  with  his  arms  quartered  with  those  of  the 
see,  the  pall  and  crosses,  adorns  the  inner  arch  of  the 
housekeeper's  room. 

The  archbishop  who  thus  improved  the  mansions 
belonging  to  his  see  was  not  conspicuous  for  his  atten- 
tion to  its  spiritual  needs,  being  so  often  "  prevented 
by  various  and  arduous  duties  to  the  king  and  the 
realm  from  coming  in  person  to  his  diocese."  He 
was,  in  fact,  more  remarkable  as  a  statesman  than  as 
a  prelate,  as  was  so  often  the  case  with  ecclesiastics  of 
the  Middle  Ages  who  obtained  the  highest  prefer- 
ments. Throughout  his  career  he  showed  an  un- 
wavering devotion  to  Queen  Elizabeth  Wydville,  to 
whom  he  probably  owed  the  favour  of  Edward  IV.  and 
his  appointment  as  Keeper  of  the  Privy  Seal,  in  1467. 
In  the  following  year  he  became  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
and  was  subsequently  promoted  to  Lincoln.  In  1474 
he  was  made  Chancellor  of  England,  an  office  which 
he  held  until  after  the  death  of  Edward,  when  he 
shared  in  the  downfall  of  the  queen.  A  touching 
though  indiscreet  example  of  Rotheram's  fidelity  was 
displayed  after  the  capture  of  her  son,  the  boy  king, 
by  Gloucester.  The  tidings  reached  the  queen  at 
night,  who  immediately  fled  into  sanctuary  at  West- 
minster with  her  other  son,  the  little  Duke  of  York. 
The  archbishop  also  heard  the  news  on  the  same  night 
by  a  messenger  from  Lord  Hastings,  who  declared  that 
the  king  was  in  no  danger,  and  that  all  would  be  well. 
"  Be  it  as  well  as  it  will,"  answered  Rotheram,  "  it  will 
never  be  as  well  as  we  have  seen  it,"  and  calling  up  his 
servants  before  daylight,  he  hastened  to  the  queen  with 
the  Great  Seal  in  his  hands  to  assure  her  of  his  loyalty. 
The  chronicler,  Grafton,  has  described  how  he  found 
her  sitting  alone  on  rushes,  all  desolate,  and  did  his 
best  to  cheer  her.      "  Madam,"  quoth  he,  "be  of  good 


64         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

comfort,  and  I  assure  you,  if  they  crown  any  other  king 
than  your  son,  whom  they  now  have,  we  shall  on  the 
morrow  crown  his  brother,  whom  you  have  with  you; 
and  here  is  the  Great  Seal,  which  in  like  wise  as  your 
noble  husband  delivered  it  over  to  me,  so  I  deliver  it 
to  you  for  the  use  of  your  son."  The  tender  chivalry 
which  prompted  this  surrender  was  indefensible  on 
grounds  of  State,  and  calmer  judgment  obliged  him  to 
send  for  the  Seal  a  few  hours  later.  But  although  it 
was  restored  to  him,  the  error  gave  a  handle  to  his 
enemies.  A  few  days  after  he  was  deprived  of  the 
chancellorship  by  the  council  which  appointed  Glou- 
cester Protector,  and  after  the  meeting  of  the  Black 
Council,  on  13th  June,  was  thrown  into  prison.  On 
6th  July  the  coronation  of  Gloucester  as  Richard  III. 
took  place,  and  about  the  same  time  Rotheram,  having 
made  his  submission  to  the  usurper,  was  liberated. 
But  whether  he  was  not  at  once  admitted  to  favour, 
or  whether  he  contrived  to  avoid  the  ceremony,  the 
fact  remains,  that  although  the  king  and  queen  were 
received  at  York  by  the  citizens  with  great  splendour 
shortly  afterwards,  and  although  they  stayed  at  the 
archbishop's  own  palace  at  York,  he  himself  was  not 
present  on  the  occasion.  The  king,  v/earing  his  crown, 
went  in  solemn  procession  to  the  Minster,  where  high 
mass  was  celebrated,  but  the  Bishop  of  Durham  was 
the  officiating  prelate.  In  spite  of  this,  Rotheram 
appears  once  or  twice  again  in  connection  with  public 
affairs,  and  it  has  even  been  suggested  that  he  was 
made  use  of  in  the  shameful  negotiations  for  a  marriage 
between  Richard  III.  and  his  niece  Elizabeth,  who 
afterwards  became  the  wife  of  Henry  VII.  The  story 
of  the  archbishop's  participation  in  the  affair  is  pro- 
bably, however,  a  piece  of  mere  scandal.  The  history 
of  the  last  years  of  Rotheram's  life  is  rather  obscure, 


BISHOPTHORPE  65 

and  it  is  doubtful  to  what  extent  he  secured  the  favour 
of  Henry  VII.  He  was  present,  though  not  in  ponti- 
ficals, at  the  creation  of  Prince  Henry  as  Duke  of 
York,  on  ist  November  1494,  and  the  three  days' 
jousting  which  followed.  Scroby  and  Cawood  seem 
to  have  become  the  favourite  residences  of  his  old  age, 
and  tradition  asserts  that  he  died  at  the  latter  place  of 
the  plague.  This  was  on  29th  May  1500.  He  was 
buried  in  the  Minster  on  the  north  side  of  the  Lady- 
chapel,  under  a  monument  of  marble  which  he  had 
erected.  His  tomb  was  examined  about  1735,  ^^^^  ^ 
vault  was  discovered  underneath  it.  Within  the  tomb 
was  a  curious  wooden  head,  which  Drake  says  was  "  a 
piece  of  extraordinary  sculpture  for  that  age  "  ;  ^  but 
whether  it  was  a  representation  of  the  archbishop's 
own,  or  that  of  some  titular  saint,  the  historian  was 
unable  to  determine.  The  head,  which  at  that  time 
had  a  stick  through  the  neck,  can  still  be  seen  in  the 
vestry  of  the  Minster.  Rotheram's  will,  which  con- 
cludes with  a  solemn  profession  of  faith,  was  most 
elaborate,  and  is  marked  by  a  touching  sense  of  his 
unworthiness,  as  well  as  by  the  strange  terror  of 
purgatory  which  belonged  to  his  age.  Among  his 
numerous  bequests  he  left  to  the  see  of  York  a 
splendid  mitre  worth  five  hundred  marks,  to  take 
the  place  of  the  one  that  had  been  destroyed  by 
Edward  IV. 

Little  can  be  said  of  the  next  two  rulers  of  the 
primacy,  the  first  of  whom,  Thomas  Savage,  seems 
to  have  been  entirely  neglectful  of  his  duties.  A 
trusted  servant  of  Henry  VII.,  he  was  generally 
occupied  either  at  court,  or,  when  in  the  country, 
by  hunting,  a  pastime  of  which  he  was  immoderately 
fond.     He  did  indeed  spend  a  great  deal  of  money  on 

1   op.  ciL,  447. 

£ 


66        EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

his  residences  at  Cawood  and  Scroby,  but  their  claim 
to  his  attention  was  that  they  were  his  favourite 
hunting  centres.  He  is  said  to  have  given  great 
offence  in  the  province  of  York  by  being  enthroned 
by  deputy,  and  sending  down  his  fool  to  amuse  the 
household.  He  occupied  the  see  for  seven  years, 
and  died  at  Cawood  on  3rd  September   1507. 

Christopher  Bainbridge,  though  not  so  utterly 
devoid  of  personal  qualifications  as  his  predecessor, 
was  a  man  of  sour  disposition  and  violent  temper, 
and  to  the  latter  he  probably  owed  his  sudden  death. 
His  civil  and  ecclesiastical  appointments  included  the 
mastership  of  the  Rolls,  the  chancellorship,  the  deanery 
of  York,  and  the  bishopric  of  Durham.  In  1508  he 
was  promoted  to  the  archbishopric  of  York,  but  was 
very  shortly  afterwards  sent  as  ambassador  to  the 
court  of  Rome  by  Henry  VIII.  to  settle  a  dispute 
between  Pope  Julius  II.  and  Louis  XII.  of  France. 
The  Pope  rewarded  him  in  1 5 1 1  with  a  cardinal's 
hat  for  persuading  Henry  to  take  his  part  in  the 
quarrel.  Bainbridge  was  in  Italy  in  15 14,  when  he 
met  his  fate.  According  to  one  account  he  took  into 
his  service  a  priest  named  Rinaldo  de  Modena,  whom 
he  struck  in  a  sudden  fit  of  passion,  an  insult  so  deeply 
resented  by  Rinaldo  that  he  avenged  it  by  a  draught 
of  poison.  Rinaldo  was  cast  into  prison,  but  drank 
poison  himself  to  escape  a  more  shameful  death. 
Another  version  of  the  story  is  that  Rinaldo  con- 
fessed that  he  poisoned  his  master  at  the  instigation 
of  the  Bishop  of  Worcester,  who  was  the  resident 
English  ambassador  at  the  court  of  Rome,  and  was 
jealous  of  Bainbridge.  The  bishop  was  able  to 
exonerate  himself  after  inducing  Rinaldo  to  retract  his 
confession,  and  the  latter  stabbed  himself  in  prison. 

Bainbridge    was   succeeded  by  the  great  Cardinal 


BISHOPTHORPE  ^^ 

Wolsey,  a  man  more  renowned  in  other  capacities 
than  as  Archbishop  of  York,  although,  in  name  at 
least,  he  occupied  the  see  from  15 14  until  his  death 
in  1530.  During  part  of  that  time  he  held  con- 
currently first  the  bishopric  of  Durham  and  then  the 
bishopric  of  Winchester.  Wolsey's  humble  origin,  his 
learning  and  ability,  his  devotion  to  the  king's  service, 
his  rapid  promotion,  and  his  sudden  fall,  are  well 
known.  For  the  northern  province  he  had  neither 
time  nor  attention  to  spare.  He  was  installed  by 
proxy,  never  came  to  his  cathedral  city,  and  never,  so 
far  as  is  known,  visited  Bishopthorpe,  where,  however, 
a  knife  and  fork  and  a  small  picture  are  preserved  as 
memorials  of  him.  Whether  he  would  at  any  time 
have  come  so  near  as  he  did  if  it  had  not  been  for  his 
virtual  banishment  at  the  time  of  his  fall,  is  a  matter 
that  naturally  cannot  be  decided.  As  it  was,  he  was 
sent  down  to  his  diocese  after  his  disgrace,  through 
the  influence  of  the  nobles  who  feared  his  restoration 
to  favour,  and  took  alarm  at  his  return  towards 
London  from  Esher.  He  had  already  been  per- 
suaded, though  with  the  greatest  reluctance,  to 
deprive  his  successors  of  York  Place  at  Westminster 
by  conveying  it  to  the  king.  Not  daring  to  refuse 
the  demand,  he  made  the  surrender  to  Sir  William 
Shelley,  but  concluded  his  protest  with  the  words, 
"  Therefore  I  charge  your  conscience  to  discharge 
me,  and  show  his  Highness  from  me,  that  I  must 
desire  his  Majesty  to  remember  there  is  both  heaven 
and  hell."  ^  The  account  of  the  cardinal's  journey 
to  the  north  is  described  in  a  most  interesting  manner 
by  his  gentleman-usher  and  biographer,  George  Caven- 
dish. The  Duke  of  Norfolk  insisted  on  Wolsey's 
speedy    departure     from    Richmond,    whereupon    the 

^  Cavendish,  Life  and  Death  of  Thomas  IVohey,  1901  edit.,  p.  154. 


68         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

cardinal  sent  a  pitiful  entreaty  for  money  to  the 
king  through  his  ever-faithful  friend,  Thomas  Crom- 
well. "Thomas,"  he  said,  "it  is  time  to  be  going, 
therefore  I  pray  you  go  to  the  King  and  tell  him  that 
I  would  go  to  my  benefice  at  York  but  for  lack  of 
money,  and  desire  his  Grace  to  help  me  to  some;  for  you 
may  say  the  last  money  I  had  from  his  Grace  was  too 
little  to  pay  my  debts,  and  to  compel  me  to  pay  the  rest 
of  my  debts  is  too  much  extremity,  seeing  all  my  goods 
are  taken  from  me.  Also  show  my  Lord  of  Norfolk 
and  the  rest  of  the  Council  that  I  would  depart  if  I  had 
money."  The  Lords  assigned  to  Wolsey  a  pension  of 
lOOO  marks  from  Winchester,  and  the  king,  who  was 
attached  to  him  at  heart,  sent  him  a  liberal  gift  of 
/]  1 0,000,  at  which  he  "  did  not  a  little  rejoice.  Forth- 
with," continues  Cavendish,  "  there  was  preparation 
made  for  his  going.  He  had  with  him  in  his  train 
one  hundred  and  fifty  persons,  and  twelve  carts  to 
carry  his  goods,  which  he  sent  from  his  college  at 
Oxford,  besides  other  carts  for  the  carriage  of  his 
necessaries  for  his  buildings.  He  kept  his  solemn 
feast  of  Easter  at  Peterborough,  and  upon  Palm  Sun- 
day he  bore  his  palm  and  went  in  procession  with  the 
monks ;  and  upon  Thursday  he  made  his  Maundy, 
having  fifty  poor  men,  whose  feet  he  washed  and 
kissed  ;  and  after  he  had  dried  them,  he  gave  every 
one  of  them  twelve  pence  and  three  ells  of  good 
canvas  to  make  them  shirts,  and  each  of  them  had 
a  pair  of  new  shoes  and  a  cask  of  red  herrings.  Upon 
Easter  Day  he  rode  to  the  Resurrection,  and  that  day 
he  went  in  procession  in  his  cardinal's  vestments,  and 
having  his  hat  on  his  head,  and  sung  the  High  Mass 
there  himself  solemnly.  After  his  Mass,  he  gave  his 
benediction  to  all  the  hearers,  and  clean  remission. 
From    Peterborough    he    took    his  journey    into    the 


BISHOPTHORPE  69 

north,  but  made  some  stay  by  the  way,  and  many 
things  happened  in  his  journey  too  tedious  here  to 
relate.  At  the  last  he  came  to  Scroby,  where  he 
continued  till  Michaelmas,  exercising  many  deeds  of 
charity.  Most  commonly  every  Sunday,  if  the  weather 
served,  would  he  go  to  some  poor  parish  church  there- 
abouts, and  there  would  say  the  Divine  Service,  and 
either  said  or  heard  Mass,  and  then  caused  one  of  his 
chaplains  to  preach  the  Word  of  God  to  the  people,  and 
afterwards  he  would  dine  in  some  honest  house  in  the 
town,  where  was  distributed  to  the  poor  alms  as  well  of 
meat  and  drink,  and  money  to  supply  the  want  of  meat 
and  drink  if  the  number  of  poor  did  exceed.  About 
Michaelmas  next  he  removed  from  thence  to  Cawood 
Castle,  within  seven  miles  of  the  city  of  York,  where 
he  had  much  honour  and  love  from  all  men,  high  and 
low,  and  where  he  kept  a  plentiful  house  for  all  comers. 
Also  he  built  and  repaired  the  castle,  which  was  much 
decayed,  having  at  the  least  three  hundred  persons 
daily  in  work,  to  whom  he  paid  wages.  And  while 
there  all  the  doctors  and  prebends  of  the  Church  of 
York  did  repair  to  my  Lord  according  to  their  duties, 
as  unto  the  chief  head,  patron,  and  father  of  their 
spiritual  dignities,  who  did  joyfully  welcome  him 
into  those  parts,  saying  it  was  no  small  comfort 
unto  them  to  see  their  Head  among  them,  who  had 
been  so  long  absent  from  them,  being  all  that  while 
like  fatherless  and  comfortless  children  for  want  of 
his  presence,  and  that  they  trusted  shortly  to  see 
him  amongst  them  in  his  own  church  :  to  whom  he 
made  answer  that  it  was  the  especial  cause  of  his 
coming  to  be  amongst  them  as  a  father  and  a  natural 
brother."  It  may  be  questioned  whether  any  one 
present  secretly  doubted  the  sincerity  of  this  last 
remark,    or  wondered  why  the  desire    of   their  head 


70         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

to  be  amongst  them  had  not  shown  itself  before ! 
Wolsey  was  destined  never  to  see  his  cathedral  church 
or  to  be  personally  installed,  for  on  the  Friday  before 
the  day  fixed  for  the  ceremony  the  Earl  of  Northum- 
berland suddenly  arrived  while  the  cardinal  was  having 
dinner  at  Cawood  Castle,  and  arrested  him  on  a  charge 
of  high  treason.  This  last  blow  was  fatal  to  the 
cardinal,  whose  health  was  already  in  a  weak,  state. 
His  sad  journey  towards  London  was  broken  several 
times,  and  at  Leicester  Abbey,  on  29th  November 
1530,  he  passed  away.  He  was  buried  in  the  Lady- 
chapel  of  the  monastery  the  following  morning,  when 
it  was  found  that  he  wore  a  shirt  of  hair  next  his  skin, 
underneath  "an  over-shirt  of  fine  hoUand." 

A  few  years  after  his  death,  Bishopthorpe,  which 
had  been  neglected  by  the  archbishops  for  so  long, 
became  the  headquarters  of  the  new  primate,  Edward 
Lee,  whose  misfortune  it  was  to  witness  and  take  a 
certain  reluctant  part  in  the  early  stages  of  the  Refor- 
mation upheaval.  Lee  was  the  king's  almoner,  and 
had  already  been  employed  on  several  embassies  when, 
in  December  1531,  he  was  elected  to  the  see  of  York 
and  enthroned  by  proxy.  At  that  time  he  was  being 
used  by  Henry  in  the  disgraceful  proceedings  con- 
nected with  the  divorce  of  Queen  Katharine ;  and, 
although  he  could  not  conscientiously  support  the 
king  in  the  matter,  the  expenses  in  which  his  promo- 
tion to  the  archbishopric  involved  him  constituted  one 
among  many  reasons  why  he  should  do  his  utmost  to 
please  his  sovereign.  In  the  previous  June  he  had 
been  a  member  of  the  deputation  sent  to  persuade  the 
queen  to  give  up  her  rights.  Her  reception  of  the 
delegates,  as  recounted  by  Chapuys  to  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.,^  redounds  to  her  credit  and  to  the  con- 

^  Cal.  State  Papers,  Dom.,  v..  No.  287. 


BISHOPTHORPE  71 

fusion  of  the  ministers,  not  one  of  whom  was  able  to 
withstand  the  dignified  restraint  of  her  conduct  and 
her  arguments.  Lee  was  one  of  those  who  incurred 
a  severe  reproof  at  her  hands  for  his  attitude  on 
the  occasion. 

For  the  first  two  or  three  years  after  his  accession 
the  archbishop  had  no  leisure  to  visit  his  diocese ; 
but  on  1st  April  1534  he  was  enthroned  in  person,  and 
from  that  time  until  1536  resided  at  Bishopthorpe/ 
and  was  largely  occupied  in  making  visitations  to  the 
religious  houses  over  which  he  had  jurisdiction.  It 
cannot  be  doubted  that  his  aim  was  to  disprove 
calumnies  and  show  the  generally  satisfactory  state 
of  morals  and  conduct  in  the  monastic  establishments, 
in  order  to  preserve  them,  if  possible,  from  the  dissolu- 
tion which  he  could  not  help  seeing  was  imminent. 
Lee's  position  was  a  difficult  one.  On  the  one  hand, 
he  owed  his  promotion  to  the  king,  and  on  this  and 
other  grounds  was  anxious  to  avoid  offending  him  ; 
on  the  other,  he  was  a  prominent  opposer  of  Erasmus 
and  the  new  learning,  and  was  known  to  be  in  favour 
of  the  Roman  system.  Finally,  he  succumbed  to  his 
desire  to  retain  the  king's  approbation,  and  even 
went  so  far  as  to  acknowledge  the  royal  supremacy, 
though  not  until  he  was  forced  to  do  so.^  In  1542 
he  surrendered  the  manors  of  Beverley,  Southwell, 
Skidby,  and  Bishop-Burton  to  the  crown  ;  but  as 
he  received  lands  in  return  which  had  belonged  to 
certain  suppressed  priories,  the  see  lost  little  by  the 
alienations.  Two  years  later  he  died,  and  was  buried 
in  York  Minster. 

The  king  took  care  that  Lee's  successor  should  be 
a  man  who  would  assist  him  to  carry  out  the  work  of 

^    Yoris.  Arch.  Journal,  xvi.  425, 

^  Letters  a^id  Papers,  Hen.  Vlll.,  passim. 


72         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

the   Reformation,   and   to  this  end  appointed  Robert 
Holgate,  who  had  been  one  of  his  chaplains,  and  in 
1538  elected  President  of  the  Council  of  the  North. 
In  January  1545   he  was   promoted   from   the  see  of 
Llandaff  to  that  of  York.      Henry  had   chosen   his 
instrument  well,  for  within  a  month  of  his  accession 
Holgate    alienated   to   the    crown   sixty-seven   manors 
belonging  to  the  archbishopric,  receiving  in  exchange 
thirty-three  impropriations  and  advowsons,  which  were 
the  spoils  of  the  Dissolution.     By  these  and  similar 
transactions  he  acquired,  at  the  expense   of  the   see, 
greater  personal  wealth  than  any  prelate  in  England. 
He  then  decided  to  marry,  and  had  his  banns  published 
in    1549    at    Bishopthorpe.       The    lady    was    Barbara 
Wentworth,  who   was    said   to   have    been    betrothed 
and  actually   married    in   her   childhood  to  a   certain 
Anthony  Norman.     During  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. 
the  latter  claimed  her,  but  an  inquiry  into  the  matter 
seems   to  have   been  decided   in  favour   of  the  arch- 
bishop.      The    accession    of    Queen    Mary    naturally 
occasioned  Holgate's  downfall.     At  the  end  of  1553 
he  was  dispossessed  of  his  ill-gotten  riches  and  com- 
mitted to  the  Tower,  and  in  the  following  year  was 
deprived    of   his    archbishopric    on    the    score    of   his 
marriage.       His    misfortunes    displayed    his    cringing 
and    servile    disposition  ;    he    implored    for    pardon, 
declaring    that   he   had    been    persuaded   to   marry   in 
case   Northumberland  should    call   him  a  papist,  and 
that  he  very  much  repented  his  offence.     He  urged 
that  he  was  not  so  much  to  blame  as  other  bishops 
under   arrest,   "  they  being  much  further  gone  amiss 
in  religion  than  he  was,  and  with  obstinacy."     After 
about  a  year  and  a  half  he  was  at  last  released,  but 
only  lived  for  a  few  months  longer.     Among  the  few 
praiseworthy  deeds  ascribed  to  him  are  his  foundation 


BISHOPTHORPE  73 

and  endowment  of  three  grammar  schools,  at  York, 
Old  Malton,  and  Hemsworth,  where  instruction  in 
Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew  was  to  be  free.  There  is 
also  a  story  that  the  cause  of  his  surrendering  a 
Lincolnshire  benefice  and  going  to  London,  where  he 
was  taken  into  the  king's  favour,  was  a  dispute  with 
Sir  Francis  Ayscough,  who  brought  a  vexatious  law- 
suit against  him.  It  happened  in  later  years,  when 
Holgate  was  President  of  the  Council  of  the  North, 
that  Ayscough  was  concerned  in  a  suit  which  was  tried 
by  him,  and  was  agreeably  surprised  to  find  his  cause 
supported  by  his  former  adversary,  who  explained  his 
partisanship  by  "  saying  merrily  to  some  of  his  friends 
that  he  was  more  obliged  to  Sir  Francis  than  any  man 
in  England,  for  had  it  not  been  for  his  pushing  him  to 
London,  he  had  lived  a  poor  priest  all  his  days." 

Nicholas  Heath,  his  successor,  is  a  very  attrac- 
tive character,  and  although  his  connection  with  the 
northern  primacy  lasted  only  a  few  years,  he  managed 
to  recover  so  much  of  the  property  which  had  been 
alienated  as  to  cause  it  to  be  said  that  the  see  of  York 
owed  to  Queen  Mary  and  this  archbishop  more  than 
a  third  part  of  its  revenues.^  Heath  procured  the 
restoration  of  Ripon  and  many  other  manors  of  which 
the  see  had  been  denuded  by  Holgate,  and  built  York 
Place,  in  the  Strand,  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of 
Suffolk  Place,  which  the  queen  had  given  him  in  com- 
pensation for  Whitehall.  He  was  appointed  chancellor 
by  Mary,  and  retained  the  office  for  a  short  time  under 
Elizabeth,  to  whom  he  rendered  valuable  services 
when  she  first  came  to  the  throne,  although  he  soon 
came  into  collision  with  her  on  the  religious  question. 
The  archbishop  refused  to  tamper  with  his  conscience, 
or  to  take  the  oath  enjoined  by  the  Act  of  Supremacy, 

^  Browne  Willis,  Survey  of  the  Cathedrals,  i.  46. 


74         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

and  was  consequently  deprived  in  1559.  For  a  short 
time  he  was  committed  to  the  Tower,  but  Elizabeth 
appreciated  the  honesty  of  his  motives,  and  was  not 
ungrateful  for  his  support  at  her  accession.  He  was 
soon  afterwards  liberated,  and  retired  to  a  small  estate 
in  Surrey,  where  "he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  days, 
unmolested,  in  a  studious  and  religious  manner,  and 
free  from  harbouring  any  thoughts  of  faction  or 
revenge."  ^ 

Thomas  Young,  who  was  appointed  to  the  see  of 
York  a  few  months  after  the  deprivation  of  his  prede- 
cessor, was  the  "  first  Protestant  archbishop."  Although 
his  character  is  not  very  commendable,  he  seems  to 
have  been  a  consistent  reformer,  and  was  remarkable 
for  his  "  painful  forwardness  in  setting  forth  the  true 
religion."  On  one  occasion  he  dared  even  to  "  ad- 
monish and  counsel  the  queen  with  regard  to  her 
method  of  life  and  conduct,"  but  his  advice  was  not 
well  received,  as  she  was  "  highly  incensed,  and  treated 
him  with  great  roughness  and  many  hard  words,  and 
threatened  to  prosecute  him."  ^  Young's  besetting  sin 
was  avarice,  and  "  his  chief  care,  whilst  he  sat  arch- 
bishop, was  providing  for  himself  and  family  by  settling 
the  estates  of  the  best  prebends  upon  them."  ^  He 
was  twice  married,  and  it  was  to  procure  an  estate  for 
his  son  that  he  committed  the  sacrilegious  act  which  is 
the  greatest  stain  on  his  reputation.  He  commenced 
the  destruction  of  York  Palace  by  demolishing  the 
great  hall  to  obtain  the  lead  from  the  roof,  which  he 
sent  by  sea  to  London,  where  it  was  sold  for  ;^iooo  ; 
but  as  he  was  cheated  out  of  the  money  by  the  Earl 
of  Arundel  his  cupidity  brought  him  nothing  but  dis- 

^  Drake,  op.  ciL,  453. 

2  Cal.  State  Papers,  Spanish,  1558-67,  p.  553. 

^  Drake,  op.  cit,,  454. 


BISHOPTHORPE  75 

honour.     Young  died  in    1568,  having  ruled  the  see 
for  seven  and  a  half  years. 

The  next  archbishop,  Edmund  Grindal,  has  been 
commemorated  by  Edmund  Spenser  in  his  "Shepheard's 
Calender  "  for  May  and  July  under  the  name  of  Al- 
grind.  In  the  latter  month  he  is  referred  to  in  the 
following  charming  lines  : — - 

Morrell.       But  say  me,  what  is  Algrind,  he 

that  is  so  oft  bynempt  ? 
Thomalin.    Hee  is  a  shepheard  great  in  gree, 

but  hath  bene  long  ypent. 
One  daye  hee  sat  upon  a  hyll, 

(as  now  thou  wouldest  me  ; 
But  I  am  taught,  by  Algrind's  ill, 

to  love  the  lowe  degree) ; 
For  sitting  so  with  Ijared  scalpe, 

An  Eagle  sored  hye, 
That,  weening  his  whyte  head  was  chalke, 

A  shell  fish  downe  let  flye : 
Shee  weend  the  shell  fish  to  have  broake, 

but  therewith  bruzd  his  brayne  ; 
So  now,  astonied  with  the  stroke, 

he  lyes  in  lingring  payne. 
Morrell.       Ah  !   good  Algrind  !  his  hap  was  ill, 

but  shall  be  better  in  time. 
Now  farewell,  shepheard,  sith  thys  hyll 

thou  hast  such  doubt  to  climbe. 

Grindal,  although  he  rose  to  positions  of  consider- 
able importance  under  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  had  un- 
usual opportunities  of  guiding  the  Church  during  the 
first  difficult  years  of  her  reign,  signally  disappointed 
the  hopes  that  were  placed  in  him,  not  on  account  of 
his  character,  which  was  above  reproach,  but  because  he 
was  too  weak  to  take  up  a  definite  attitude  at  a  time 
when  a  leader  was  indispensable,  and  too  scrupulous 
and  conscientious  to  fall  in  with  the  shifting  policy  of 
the  queen.      He  was  recommended  by  the  Archbishop 


76         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

of  Canterbury  for  the  see  of  York,  because  "  he  was 
not  resolute  and  severe  enough  for  the  government 
of  London,"  and  was  accordingly  elected  in  1570.  In 
the  northern  province  his  work,  which  was  chiefly 
directed  against  the  Romish  party,  was  more  congenial 
to  him,  and  his  wisdom  and  tact  enabled  him  to  pursue 
his  aim  of  rooting  out  superstitions  without  causing  any 
unnecessary  dissension.  He  presided  over  the  see  for 
five  years,  but  after  the  death  of  Archbishop  Parker 
was  removed  to  Canterbury,  where,  however,  he  failed 
to  achieve  the  religious  settlement  that  was  hoped  for 
by  the  queen  and  Cecil.  He  came  into  opposition 
with  Elizabeth  on  the  subject  of  "  prophesyings  "  and 
preaching,  and  was  suspended  for  six  months.  Although 
afterwards  reinstated  Grindal  became  afflicted  with 
blindness,  and  was  about  to  resign  his  office  in  con- 
sequence. He  died,  however,  before  the  arrangements 
could  be  completed,  in  July  1583. 

In  the  butler's  room  at  Bishopthorpe  is  a  small 
pane  of  glass  with  Grindal's  arms  and  his  name,  and 
the  date,  1570. 

After  his  translation  to  Canterbury  in  1576,  Edwin 
Sands  or  Sandys,  a  zealous  Puritan,  was  appointed  his 
successor.  He  was  a  man  "  marvellously  ill-favoured," 
and  of  a  quarrelsome  disposition,  and  his  tenure  of  the 
primacy  is  marked  by  a  series  of  disputes,  in  which  he 
immediately  became  involved.  As  soon  as  he  arrived 
in  the  north  an  attempt  was  made  to  induce  him  to 
give  up  Bishopthorpe,  which  was  coveted  as  a  suitable 
residence  for  the  Presidents  of  the  Council  of  the 
North.  Fortunately  he  was  successful  in  resisting 
this  encroachment,  but  only  with  great  difficulty. 
The  President  of  the  Council,  the  Earl  of  Hunting- 
don, evidently  went  so  far  as  to  take  possession  of 
the  house,  for  he  wrote  a  letter  from  Bishopthorpe, 


BISHOPTHORPE  77 

dated  ist  April  1577,  in  which  he  says  that  he  is 
leaving,  and  intends  in  fifteen  days  to  "  yield  up  all, 
full  sore  against  my  wife's  will."  In  the  same  year 
the  archbishop  visited  the  see  of  Durham,  which  was 
then  vacant,  and  embroiled  himself  with  the  clergy. 
He  also  made  many  other  enemies,  among  them  Sir 
Robert  Stapleton,  who  seems,  however,  to  have  been 
the  greatest  offender  in  the  dissensions  that  arose  be- 
tween them.  It  is  said  that  he  was  anxious  to  obtain 
advantageous  leases  from  the  archbishop,  and  en- 
deavoured to  force  his  hand  by  devising  a  malicious 
slander  against  him.  Sandys  at  first  yielded  to  avoid 
a  scandal,  but  when  Stapleton  continued  to  blackmail 
him,  he  exposed  the  affair  and  managed  to  clear  him- 
self. On  one  occasion  Stapleton  related  that  a  scene 
of  "  violent  recrimination "  took  place  between  the 
Archbishop  of  York  and  a  certain  Mr.  Sysson  in 
an  orchard  at  Bishopthorpe.  According  to  his  own 
account,  Stapleton  interfered,  and  was  drawn  into 
a  personal  contest  with  Sysson,  but  they  were  evi- 
dently accused  of  being  accomplices,  as  Stapleton 
denied  "  that  this  strife  was  feigned  in  order  to 
draw  on  a  composition."  ^ 

Sandys  was  twice  married,  and  by  his  second  wife 
had  seven  sons  and  two  daughters.  He  died  in  July 
1588.  Fuller  says  of  him  that  he  was  "an  excellent 
and  painful  preacher,  and  of  a  pious  and  godly  life, 
which  increased  in  his  old  age ;  so  that  by  a  great  and 
good  stride,  whilst  he  had  one  foot  in  the  grave,  he  had 
the  other  in  heaven.  He  was  buried  in  Southwell  ; 
and  it  is  hard  to  say  whether  he  was  more  eminent 
in  his  own  virtues,  or  more  happy  in  his  flourishing 
posterity."  '^ 

1  Cal.  State  Papers,  Doju.,  1581-90,  p.  98. 
*  Church  History  (edit.  Brewer),  v.  141. 


78         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

Sandys  was  succeeded  by  John  Piers,  who  was 
translated  from  Salisbury  to  York  in  1589.  The 
following  admirable  account  of  him  is  given  by 
Drake :  ^  "He  is  said  to  be  a  man  that  was  master 
of  all  kinds  of  learning,  and  beloved  by  every  one  for 
his  humanity,  excellent  behaviour,  and  generosity.  The 
last  of  which  virtues  he  exercised  to  such  a  degree  that 
he  scarce  left  at  his  death  sufficient,  as  is  said,  to  erect 
a  monument  to  his  memory.  The  small  one  set  up  in 
the  church  for  him  having  been  placed  there,  as  the 
inscription  intimates,  by  Dr.  Bennett,  one  of  his  grate- 
ful chaplains  and  testamentary  heir  to  what  he  left 
behind  him.  In  his  younger  years,  when  he  resided 
on  a  small  living  in  Oxfordshire,  he  fell  into  an  excess 
of  drinking  and  keeping  mean  company  ;  but  upon 
being  admonished  of  it  by  a  grave  divine  he  quite 
forsook  that  course,  and  followed  his  duties  so  hard 
that  he  deservedly  attained  to  great  honours  and 
preferments.  He  was  in  great  favour  with  Queen 
Elizabeth,  who  made  him  her  almoner ;  and  he  must 
be  a  wise  and  good  man  whom  that  thrifty  princess, 
says  Fuller,  would  trust  with  the  distribution  of  her 
monies.  He  lived  and  died  with  the  character  of  one 
of  the  most  grave  and  reverend  prelates  of  his  age  ; 
and,  after  his  reduced  life,  was  so  abstemious  that, 
in  his  advanced  years,  when  his  constitution  required 
such  support,  his  physician  could  not  persuade  him  to 
drink  any  wine.  So  habituated  he  was  then  to  sobriety, 
and  bore  such  a  detestation  to  his  former  excess. 

"  This  primitive  bishop  lived  in  a  state  of  celibacy 
all  his  days  ;  and  died  at  Bishopthorpe,  28th  September 
1594,  having  leased  nothing  from  the  Church  nor  hurt 
its  revenues." 

Archbishop  Matthew  Hutton,  his  successor,  passed 

1  Op.  cit.,  456. 


BISHOPTHORPE  79 

a  good  deal  of  time  at  Bishopthorpe.  He  was  too 
old  a  man  when  he  was  promoted  to  the  primacy, 
at  the  advanced  age  of  sixty-six,  to  care  for  much 
travelling ;  the  palace  at  York  was  no  longer  used 
as  a  residence,  and  his  most  natural  home  would 
be  Bishopthorpe,  the  nearest  to  the  cathedral  of 
the  archiepiscopal  seats.  This  prelate  was  of  very 
humble  origin,  and  owed  his  high  preferments  to  his 
reputation  as  a  scholar  and  a  theologian.  His  great  aim 
as  archbishop  was  the  suppression  of  Popery,  "  which 
was  very  prevailing  in  the  northern  parts,"  but  he  depre- 
cated every  kind  of  persecution,  and  one  of  his  last 
public  acts  was  a  letter  to  Lord  Cranborne  recom- 
mending a  relaxation  of  severity  towards  the  Puritans. 
In  the  early  part  of  1598,  when  Sir  Robert  Ker  of 
Cessford,  a  servant  of  the  King  of  Scotland  (afterwards 
James  I.  of  England),  and  warden  of  the  east  marches, 
was  sent  to  England  "  for  answering  of  divers  attempts 
and  wrongs  done  by  the  part  of  Scotland,"  the  queen, 
realising  that  he  was  a  man  of  great  account,  both 
by  his  birth  and  by  office,  and  one  able  to  be  either  a 
good  or  a  bad  neighbour  to  England,  thought  it  neces- 
sary that  he  should  be  "  brought  and  stayed  in  some 
remote  part  in  England  from  the  Border."  ^  She 
therefore  sent  him  to  York,  and  requested  the  arch- 
bishop to  detain  him  at  Bishopthorpe,  where  she  de- 
sired that  he  should  be  safely  guarded,  that  no  one 
should  hold  any  communication  with  him,  except 
in  the  presence  of  that  gentleman  whom  the  arch- 
bishop should  appoint  to  wait  upon  him,  and  that 
he  should  not  be  allowed  to  walk  abroad,  except 
privately,  near  the  house.  Sir  Robert  remained  in 
durance  as  a  guest  of  the  archbishop  until  May. 
He  seems  to  have  been  treated  with  every  considera- 

'  HiUton  Correspondence  (Surtees  Soc),  121. 


8o         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

tion,  and  to  have  honourably  accepted  the  courtesy. 
In  one  of  his  letters  to  Lord  Willoughby,  the  arch- 
bishop expressed  the  opinion  that  Sir  Robert  would 
not  make  any  attempt  to  escape,  and  the  latter  after 
his  liberation  wrote  a  letter  to  his  host,  on  14th  June, 
which  commences :  "  May  it  pleis  zour  Grace.  I 
determinit,  quhen  I  sinderit  frome  zow,  before  now 
to  have  returnit  sum  signe  of  myndfulnes  in  me  to 
be  thankfuU  for  the  ressonabill  curtessies  and  un- 
deservit  favouris  that  I  resavit  of  zour  Grace  at  my 
being  in  zour  hous  of  Bischopthorpe."  ^ 

One  of  Archbishop  Hutton's  experiences  is  senten- 
tiously  related  by  Fuller,^  who  says  :  "  One  of  the 
last  times  that  ever  he  preached  in  his  cathedral  was 
on  this  occasion  :  The  Catholics  in  Yorkshire  were 
commanded  by  the  queen's  authority  to  be  present 
at  three  sermons,  and  at  the  two  first  behaved  them- 
selves so  obstreperously  that  some  of  them  were  forced 
to  be  gagged  before  they  would  be  quiet ;  the  arch- 
bishop preached  the  last  most  gravely  and  solidly, 
taking  for  his  text  John  viii.  47  :  '  He  that  is  of  God, 
heareth  God's  words ;  ye  therefore  hear  them  not, 
because  ye  are  not  of  God.'  " 

Archbishop  Hutton  died  at  Bishopthorpe  in 
January  1606.  His  successor,  Tobias  Matthew,  was 
renowned  for  his  wit,  or,  as  Sir  John  Harington 
expresses  it,  his  "  cheerful  sharpness  in  discourse." 
He  was  a  most  celebrated  preacher,  and  was  a  great 
favourite  both  with  Oueen  Elizabeth  and  King  James. 
The  former  was  greatly  attracted  by  his  handsome 
person  and  sparkling  humour,  and  showed  him  much 
preference.  She  is  said  to  have  been  equally  kind  to 
his  wife,  on  whom  she  bestowed  "  a  fragment  of  an 
unicorn's    horn " !     Mrs.    Matthew    was   "  a    prudent 

^  Hutton  Correspondence  (Surtees  Soc),  ISS-  ^  Op,  cit.,  v.  355. 


BISHOPTHORPE 


and  provident  matron,"  and  "  is  memorable  likewise 
for  having  a  bishop  to  her  father,  an  archbishop  to 
her  father-in-law,  four  bishops  to  her  brethren,  and 
an  archbishop  to  her  husband."  This  lady,  after  the 
death  of  Archbishop  Matthew,  gave  his  valuable  library 
to  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  York. 

James  I.  paid  a  visit  to  Bishopthorpe  on  his  way  to 
Scotland  in  1617,  and  was  received  with  great  welcome 
by  the  archbishop  and  Mrs.  Matthew.  The  king  could 
heartily  enjoy  a  joke,  and  the  banquet  in  the  great  hall 
would  undoubtedly  be  a  merry  one,  enriched  by  the 
most  cheerful  conversation  and  brilliant  repartee. 

For  all  his  love  of  fun,  the  primate  never  trespassed 
on  episcopal  gravity,  and  although  he  gave  so  much 
attention  to  his  preaching,  "  he  neglected  not  his  proper 
episcopal  acts  of  visitation,  confirmation,  ordination, 
&c."  ^  As  a  statesman  Matthew  was  wise  and  diplo- 
matic, but  he  retired  from  political  life  in  his  last 
years.  He  died  at  Cawood,  greatly  regretted,  in 
March  1628. 

The  name  of  Archbishop  George  Monteigne  is 
associated  with  Cawood  rather  than  Bishopthorpe, 
where  he  left  no  mark.  Monteigne  was  born  at 
Cawood,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  son  of  a 
small  farmer.  It  is  said  that  he  determined  as  a 
boy  to  become  Archbishop  of  York  and  to  possess 
Cawood  Castle,  an  ambition  which  he  realised  in  1628. 
There  is  a  story  that  he  owed  his  final  promotion  to 
his  wit.  He  was  not  so  great  a  favourite  with 
Charles  I.  as  with  King  James,  and  when  the  see  of 
York  became  vacant  by  the  death  of  Archbishop 
Matthew,  Monteigne  feared  that  he  would  lose  the 
coveted  prize.  It  happened,  however,  that  the  king 
was   discussing    the    question    in    his    presence,    when 

^  Thoresby,  Vicaria  Lcodiensis,  165. 

F 


82         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

Monteigne,  who  had  shortly  before  been  elected  to 
Durham,  quietly  observed,  "  Hadst  thou  faith  as  a 
grain  of  mustard  seed,  thou  wouldst  say  unto  this 
mountain "  (laying  his  hand  upon  his  own  breast), 
"  Be  removed  into  that  sea."  The  apt  quotation 
appealed  to  the  king's  sense  of  humour,  and  he  duly 
rewarded  him  with  the  translation.  The  archbishop 
died,  however,  in  October  of  the  same  year,  and  was 
interred,  according  to  his  desire,  in  Cawood  Church. 

Samuel  Harsnett,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  was  appointed 
in  November,  but  enjoyed  the  archiepiscopal  dignity 
only  until  1631,  when  he  died  and  was  buried  "with- 
out pomp  or  solemnity "  in  the  parish  church  of 
Chigwell,  Like  his  predecessors,  he  made  it  one  of 
his  chief  objects  to  check  the  steady  progress  of  the 
Puritan  party,  and  was  even  on  one  occasion  denounced 
as  a  papist.  Harsnett's  character  was  not  without  a 
stain,  for  having  at  one  time  held  the  mastership  of 
Pembroke  Hall,  Cambridge,  "  he  was  ejected  out  of 
the  same  for  some  scandalous  practices,  which  were  so 
flagrant  against  him,  being  exhibited  in  fifty-seven 
articles,  that  he  was  glad  to  quit  his  mastership  to 
prevent  farther  inquiry,"^ 

The  see  of  York  had  been  vacant  for  nine  months 
when  Richard  Neile,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  was  nomi- 
nated by  Charles  I.  Eachard  says "  that  this  man,  by 
his  merit  alone,  "  passed  through  all  the  degrees  and 
orders  of  the  Church  of  England,  having  been  school- 
master, curate,  vicar,  parson,  chaplain,  Master  of  the 
Savoy,  Dean  of  Westminster,  Clerk  of  the  Closet  to 
two  kings.  Bishop  of  Rochester,  Lichfield,  Lincoln, 
Durham,  and  Winchester,  and  lastly,  Archbishop  of 
York."     He  was  not  a  scholar,  but  was  a  man  of  much 

'  Willis,  op.  cit.,  i.  55. 

*  History  of  England,  Book  i.  p.  185. 


BISHOPTHORPE  83 

address,  great  practical  ability  and  common  sense,  as 
well  as  hard-working  and  conscientious.  He  was 
exceedingly  popular,  and  it  has  been  said  of  him  that 
"  he  became  prominent  and  successful  where  greater 
men  failed."  He  was  sincerely  attached  to  Arch- 
bishop Laud,  and  might  have  shared  the  same  fate 
had  he  not  died  in  1640,  before  the  "evil  day"  came. 

On  27th  May  1633,  Archbishop  Neile  entertained 
Charles  I.  at  Bishopthorpe,  who  there  knighted  his  son, 
Sir  Paul  Neile.  The  son  of  the  latter,  William  Neile 
the  mathematician,  was  born  at  Bishopthorpe  during 
his  grandfather's  occupation  of  the  house  in  1637. 

Archbishop  Neile  was  succeeded  by  his  enemy, 
John  Williams,  the  rival  of  Laud,  who  is  equally  well 
known  as  a  politician  and  an  ecclesiastic.  He  was 
made  Lord  Keeper  after  the  fall  of  Bacon  in  1621, 
was  committed  to  the  Tower  in  1637  on  a  charge 
of  suborning  false  evidence  in  a  trial,  released  by  the 
Long  Parliament  in  1640,  but  again  committed  to  the 
Tower  in  1641  for  presenting  a  protest  to  the  king 
which  was  damaging  to  the  House  of  Commons. 

In  the  meantime  Williams  had  been  translated  by 
Charles  I.  from  Lincoln  to  York.  In  May  1642  he 
was  released  on  bail  on  condition  that  he  should  not  go 
into  Yorkshire  during  the  distractions  there.  However, 
he  broke  the  agreement,  stole  away  to  York  where  the 
king  was,  and  was  enthroned  in  June.  The  Civil  War 
broke  out  soon  afterwards,  and  Williams  was  obliged 
to  desert  Cawood,  which  he  had  fortified,  and  fly  to 
Conway,  his  native  place.  Like  other  bishops,  he  was 
deprived,  and  after  the  murder  of  the  king  lived  in 
retirement  until  his  death  in  1650. 

During  the  ten  years  which  followed,  the  see  of 
York  remained  vacant.  Bishopthorpe  had  been  sold 
by  the  Parliament  to  Colonel  Walter  White  in   1647, 


84         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

for  £S'2S-  At  this  time  the  centre  part  of  the  house 
was  probably  very  much  in  decay,  but  it  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  restored  by  Colonel  White,  who,  according 
to  Archbishop  Sharp,  contented  himself  with  adding 
two  wings  on  the  south  side  of  Rotheram's  edifice. 
Keble  says  ^  that  he  "  must  have  lengthened  the  main 
wing  as  well,  for  Rotheram's  building  did  not  go  far 
enough  for  the  further  projection  to  be  added  to  it," 
and  he  also  notes  that  the  old  cellars  of  the  wing,  now 
disused,  show  exactly  where  Rotheram's  building  ends 
and  White's  begins.  The  passage  next  to  the  house- 
keeper's room  was  probably  built  at  this  time.  The 
additions  and  iinprovements  were  continued  by  Arch- 
bishop Accepted  Frewen,  who  was  installed  at  the 
Restoration.  Of  Puritan  ancestry,  as  his  Christian 
name  indicates,  he  was  an  old  man  when  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  primacy,  and  lived  only  a  little  over 
three  years  longer.  During  that  time  he  restored  the 
oldest  part  of  Bishopthorpe,  rebuilding  the  dining-hall, 
which  was  in  a  ruinous  condition  and  open  to  the  sky, 
and  adding  the  beautifully  panelled  ceiling.  He  also 
rebuilt  the  rooms  above  it,  and  made  considerable 
alterations  and  additions  to  the  desecrated  chapel, 
which  he  fitted  with  a  pulpit  and  high  pews.  His 
initials,  A.  F.,  and  the  date,  1662,  are  still  to  be  seen. 
Frewen  died  at  Bishopthorpe,  and  was  buried  under  the 
east  window  of  York  Minster. 

He  was  followed  by  Richard  Sterne,  who  had  been 
a  loyal  adherent  to  Charles  I.  and  chaplain  to  Arch- 
bishop Laud,  whom  he  supported  on  the  scaffold. 
The  sad-faced  Archbishop  Sterne  occupied  the  primacy 
from  1655  until  1683,  and  during  that  time  "his 
whole  behaviour  was  worthy  of  the  high  station  he  bore." 
He  added  to  the  stables  at  Bishopthorpe,  and  built  a 

^  Bishopthorpe,  72. 


BISHOPTHORPE  85 


laundry-house,  which  is  no  longer  in  existence.  The 
residence  was  finally  the  scene  of  his  death.  The 
communion  plate  of  York  Minster  had  been  stolen 
during  his  primacy,  and  in  his  will  he  left  his  own 
plate,  which  had  been  used  in  Bishopthorpe  Chapel,  to 
take  its  place.  The  archbishop's  one  regrettable  act 
was  the  alienation  of  Hexgrave,  near  Southwell,  from 
the  see  of  York, 

John  Dolben,  the  next  archbishop,  had  taken  part 
as  a  youth  in  the  Royalist  cause,  and  was  twice  severely 
wounded.  At  Marston  Moor  he  received  a  musket- 
ball  in  his  shoulder  while  carrying  the  colours,  and  in 
the  siege  of  York  his  thigh-bone  was  broken.  His 
bravery  in  battle  was  equalled  by  his  courage  as  a 
churchman,  for  during  the  Commonwealth  he  defied 
the  penal  laws,  and  loyally  maintained  the  services  of 
the  proscribed  Church  of  England.  In  1662  he  was 
promoted  to  the  deanery  of  Westminster,  and  it  was 
during  his  residence  that  the  Great  Fire  of  London  took 
place.  The  occasion  must  have  caused  the  ardent 
spirit  of  his  youth  to  flame  anew.  He  ordered  out 
the  Westminster  scholars,  and  led  them  to  the  thrilling 
scene,  where  with  their  help  he  largely  contributed  to 
the  saving  of  St.  Dunstan's  Church. 

The  dean's  preaching  at  the  abbey  was  far-famed, 
and  crowds  flocked  to  hear  him.  He  has  been  immor- 
talised by  Dryden  ^  in  his  "  Absalom  and  Achitophel," 
in  these  words : 

"  Him  of  the  v/estern  dome,  whose  mighty  sense 
Flows  in  fit  words  and  heavenly  eloquence." 

Dolben  was  elected  to  the  archbishopric  of  York  in 
1683,  and  received  with  universal  acclamation,  but, 
sadly  enough,  he  only  lived  to  preside  over  the  see  for 

1    IVorks  (edit.  Scott),  ix.  243. 


86         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

three  years.  About  Easter  time,  1686,  he  contracted 
smallpox,  and  died  within  a  few  days  at  Bishopthorpe. 
This  archbishop  effected  an  improvement  in  his  house 
here  by  paving  the  courtyard  with  pebbles. 

The  character  of  his  successor,  Thomas  Lamplugh, 
has  been  blackened  by  Wood,^  who  accuses  him  of 
being  a  successful  time-server  in  days  when  it  was 
necessary  to  make  great  sacrifices  for  the  sake 
of  loyalty  and  conscience.  Other  evidence  suggests 
that  these  criticisms  are  exaggerated,  but  Lamplugh, 
though  undoubtedly  a  Royalist  at  heart,  and  the  re- 
cipient of  many  favours  from  Charles  II.  and  James 
II.,  was  one  of  the  first  to  swear  allegiance  to  William 
of  Holland.  The  see  of  York  had  been  vacant  for 
more  than  two  years  and  a  half  when,  in  1688,  Lamp- 
lugh was  appointed  by  King  James,  as  a  reward  for  his 
having  conveyed  the  news  of  the  landing  of  the  Prince 
of  Orange.  He  was  officially  translated  from  Exeter 
three  days  before  the  king's  flight,  and  was  enthroned 
by  proxy  shortly  afterwards.  The  temptation  to 
transfer  his  loyalty  to  William  must  have  been  great, 
and  Lamplugh  succumbed  to  it.  In  the  beginning  of 
March  of  the  following  year  he  received  the  tempo- 
ralities from  the  new  king,  and  in  April  assisted  at  his 
coronation.  He  did  not  long  enjoy  the  dignity  of  his 
high  position,  as  he  died  at  Bishopthorpe  in  May  1691. 
According  to  Le  Neve  ^  he  made  "  the  screen  in  the 
hall  at  Bishopthorpe,  and  paved  it  with  stone."  He 
was  interred  in  the  south  choir  of  the  Minster.  By 
his  will  he  bequeathed  to  the  succeeding  archbishops 
of  York  his  private  communion  plate  for  their  use  in 
Bishopthorpe  Chapel. 

Two  months  after  his  death,  John  Sharp,  one  of 

1  Athenae,  iv.  878  ;  Life  and  Times  (Oxford  Hist.  Soc),  i.  365. 

2  Lives  of  Protestant  Bishops ,  277. 


BISHOPTHORPE  87 

the  most  beautiful  and  lovable  characters  that  ever 
adorned  so  noble  a  dignity,  was  consecrated  to  the  see. 
Although  he  became  the  faithful  friend  and  adviser  of 
Queen  Anne,  he  was  little  concerned  with  political  life, 
and  devoted  himself  to  ecclesiastical  matters,  in  which 
his  wisdom  and  rectitude  were  unfailing. 

During  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary  he  was 
offered  a  choice  of  the  sees  of  which  the  non-jurors 
had  been  deprived,  but  he  refused  to  accept  any  of 
them  as  long  as  they  lived.  Macaulay  wrote  of  him  ^ 
that  he  was  "  the  highest  churchman  that  had  been 
zealous  for  comprehension,  and  the  lowest  churchman 
that  felt  a  scruple  about  succeeding  a  deprived  prelate." 
As  a  preacher  Sharp  deservedly  acquired  a  great  reputa- 
tion. His  son.  Dr.  Thomas  Sharp,  who  wrote  his  bio- 
graphy,'^ says  that  he  would  not  "  venture  upon  so  great 
a  work  "  (as  preaching)  "  without  having  prepared  the 
diction  as  well  as  the  matter.  He  never  thought  he 
could  take  too  great  precautions,  or  too  much  pains, 
in  composing  his  sermons  (some  of  which  he  corrected 
more  than  once)."  Sharp  was  a  man  of  liberal  tastes, 
and  according  to  his  son,  "  he  loved  poetry  all  his  life." 
His  hobbies  were  the  collection  of  coins  and  gardening, 
and  this  last  inclination  led  him  to  take  the  greatest 
interest  in  his  home  at  Bishopthorpe.  The  grounds 
were  carefully  laid  out  under  his  personal  supervision, 
and  the  beautiful  lime  avenue  was  planted  by  him.  In 
the  summer  the  archbishop  spent  much  of  his  time  in 
the  open  air,  performing  his  devotions  "  either  in  his 
garden  or  in  the  adjoining  fields  and  meadows."  His 
"  Temple  of  Praise "  was  a  grass  walk  walled  in  by 
magnificent  yew  hedges,  which  shadowed  it  through- 
out almost  the  whole  day.  Adjoining  it  on  the  east 
was  a  little  maze  or  wilderness,  which  was  another  very 

^  Hist.  0]  England,  iv.  43.  ^  Edit,  by  T.  Newcome. 


88         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

favourite  place  of  retirement.  It  is  a  matter  of  great 
regret  that  these  secluded  corners,  so  loved  by  the 
good  archbishop,  have  not  been  preserved  as  memorials 
of  him. 

An  example  of  Sharp's  generosity  was  his  raising 
almost  a  third  of  the  necessary  sum  for  the  repair  of 
York  Minster,  a  great  part  of  which  was  burnt  in 
171 1.  He  occupied  the  see  for  nearly  twenty-three 
years.  His  care  for  it  is  shown  by  his  obtaining  a 
promise  from  the  queen  to  nominate  Sir  William 
Dawes  as  his  successor,  a  promise  which  she  faithfully 
carried  out  after  his  death  in  17 14.  He  was  interred  in 
the  Lady-chapel  in  the  Minster  under  a  monument  on 
which  an  elaborate  epitaph  was  inscribed  by  his  friend, 
Bishop  Smalbridge.^  In  one  of  the  manuscript  books 
carefully  compiled  by  Archbishop  Sharp  is  a  list  of 
part  of  the  equipment  of  Bishopthorpe  house  and 
chapel.  A  large  piece  of  tapestry  with  the  story  of 
Ananias  and  Sapphira  worked  upon  it,  which  then 
hung  at  the  altar,  and  of  which  mention  is  made,  has 
since  disappeared.  The  archbishop's  black-letter  Bible 
is  still  preserved  at  Bishopthorpe. 

Sir  William  Dawes,  who  was  duly  elected  within 
a  month  of  his  predecessor's  death,  belonged  to  an 
ancient  family  which  had  been  very  wealthy  until 
their  fortune  was  dispersed  in  the  service  of  Charles  I. 
The  father  of  the  archbishop  was  rewarded  by  Charles  II. 
with  a  title  which  descended  to  Sir  William  after  the 
death  of  his  two  elder  brothers.  This  prelate  is 
described  by  his  contemporary  Drake "  as  being  "  of  a 
noble  and  majestic  personage,  and  a  sweet  and  engaging 
behaviour,  kind  and  respectful  to  his  clergy,  and  human 
to  all  the  world."  He  is  said  to  have  made  great 
improvements    at    Bishopthorpe   while   it   was   in   his 

^  It  is  given  in  full  in  Drake's  Eboracuni,  467-68.  -  Op.  cit.,  469. 


BISHOPTHORPE  89 

possession,  but  there  is  nothing  to  show  the  actual 
scope  of  his  work.  Canon  Keble,  quoting  the  records 
of  the  manor-house,  says  that  his  housekeeper,  Mrs. 
Newton,  "  embezzled  the  chapel  litany  desk,  covered 
with  purple  damask  and  gold  fringe."  The  arch- 
bishop died  in  1724,  after  ten  years'  conscientious 
government  of  the  see. 

No  one  could  have  been  a  greater  contrast  to  the 
aristocratic  gentleman,  Archbishop  Dawes,  than  Lance- 
lot Blackburne,  who  succeeded  him  in  the  primacy. 
The  stories  told  about  his  wild  youth,  although  doubt- 
less very  exaggerated,  could  not  have  been  altogether 
without  foundation,  and  in  spite  of  his  subsequent 
advancement  the  reputation  gained  in  his  early  years 
clung  to  him  throughout  his  life.  The  rumour  that 
he  was  at  one  time  a  pirate  arose  from  the  fact  that 
shortly  after  his  ordination  he  went  out  to  the  West 
Indies,  serving,  it  is  said,  as  chaplain  on  board  a  buc- 
caneering ship  sent  to  prey  on  the  Spaniards.  His  life 
was,  in  any  case,  certainly  not  a  blameless  one,  and  in 
1702  the  reports  circulated  about  him,  whether  slan- 
derous or  not,  forced  him  to  resign  the  sub-deanery  of 
Exeter,  to  which  he  had  been  appointed  in  1695.  ^^ 
was,  however,  restored  two  years  later,  and  obtained 
rapid  preferment,  becoming  Dean  of  Exeter  in  1705, 
Bishop  in  17 17,  and  Archbishop  of  York  in  1724. 
Scandal  attributed  this  last  promotion  to  the  gratitude 
of  George  I.,  who  was  stated  to  have  been  united  in 
marriage  with  the  Duchess  of  Munster  by  Blackburne. 

The  following  horrified  reference  to  the  laxity  of 
the  archbishop's  views  occurs  in  a  letter  written  by 
Dr.  William  Stratford  to  Edward  Harley,  afterwards 
Earl  of  Oxford  :  "  Do  you  hear  that  your  new 
Northern  Metropolitan  [Blackburne]  continued  his 
journey   so   upon   his  going   down  as  to  travel  from 


90         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF    YORK 

Doncaster  to  Bishopthorpe  on  Sunday?  It  makes  no 
little  noise  in  this  part  of  the  world,  which  is  not  used 
to  such  freedoms  as  pass  in  the  Southern  climate,"  ^ 
Walpole,  writing  of  the  prelate,  says,  "  The  jolly  old 
Archbishop  of  York  .  .  .  had  all  the  manners  of  a 
man  of  quality,  though  he  had  been  a  buccaneer  and 
was  a  clergyman ;  but  he  retained  nothing  of  his  first 
profession  except  his  seraglio."  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  chief  distinction  of  the  manners  of  a  man  of 
quality  in  his  day,  those  of  Blackburne  were  evidently 
gay  and  ready,  if  also  deplorably  free.  On  one 
occasion,  Queen  Caroline  inquired  whether  Butler,  the 
author  of  the  Analogy^  were  dead.  "  No,  madam,  he 
is  not  dead,  but  he  is  buried,"  answered  Blackburne, 
alluding  to  his  secluded  life  at  Stanhope.  This  reply 
resulted  in  Butler's  speedy  summons  and  preferment. 
One  of  the  stories  told  of  the  archbishop  is  that  the 
notorious  Dick  Turpin  was  for  some  time  his  butler  at 
Bishopthorpe. 

Blackburne  died  in  London  in  1743,  and  was 
buried  in  St.  Margaret's  Church,  Westminster.  He 
was  followed  by  Thomas  Herring,  who  was  translated 
from  Bangor.  Herring  straightway  made  a  progress 
through  his  new  diocese,  and  writing  to  his  friend 
William  Buncombe  in  the  September  after  his  appoint- 
ment says,  "  I  am  confident  I  have  confirmed  above 
thirty  thousand  people "  —  a  somewhat  astonishing 
statement.  He  was  no  less  vigorous  and  energetic 
as  a  statesman  than  as  a  churchman,  and  was  a 
thorough-going  Whig.  The  rebellion  of  1745  broke 
out  while  he  was  at  York,  and  he  took  a  conspicuous 
part  against  Prince  Charles  Edward,  stirring  up  his 
province  to  support  the  new  Government,  not  only  by 
preaching,  but  by  every  means  in  his  power.     Owing 

1  Hist.  MSS.  Com.,  Portland,  vii.  401. 


BISHOPTHORPE  91 

to  his  exertions  ^40,000  was  raised  in  his  diocese, 
and  the  Jacobites  of  Yorkshire  were  restrained  from 
joining  the  insurrection.  The  archbishop's  translation 
to  Canterbury  in  1747  rewarded  him  for  his  services  at 
this  perilous  juncture, 

Bishopthorpe  is  said  to  have  been  much  improved 
under  his  care.  A  letter^  from  his  nephew,  Thomas 
Herring,  dated  from  here  19th  June  1743,  affords  some 
impression  of  the  house  as  it  then  was :  "  I  am  at 
present,"  he  says,  "  under  the  hospitable  roof  of  an 
archbishop,  of  which  1  can  send  you  no  regular 
account,  for  it  was  built  at  a  time  of  day  when  men 
paid  more  regard  to  convenience  than  to  uniformity ; 
and  therefore  it  would  be  in  vain  to  attempt  an  exact 
description  of  it.  The  rooms  are  very  large,  and 
furnished  in  character ;  and  that  apartment  where  I 
now  sit  to  write  is  ornamented  with  the  adventures  of 
Samson,  curiously  wrought  in  old  tapestry,  the  work, 
perhaps,  of  some  religious  dame.  In  one  of  the  bed- 
chambers, on  each  side  of  the  chimney,  there  are  two 
cherubims  weeping  most  bitterly ;  and  the  story  says 
that  when  the  carver  was  asked  by  somebody  how  it 
entered  into  his  head  to  represent  them  crying,  his 
answer  was  that  he  appealed  to  the  Te  Deum  for  the 
propriety  of  what  he  had  done.  Upon  the  whole  it  is 
a  most  agreeable  house,  and  pleases  me  better  than  if 
it  had  been  designed  by  Lord  Burlington,  or  any  other 
genius  of  the  age," 

Matthew  Hutton,  who  occupied  the  primacy  from 
1747  until  1757,  when  he  was  translated  to  Canter- 
bury, was  a  lineal  descendant  of  his  namesake,  the 
former  Archbishop  of  York.  He  evidently  made 
some  additions  to  Bishopthorpe,  as  the  date,  1747,  on 
a  stone  outside  the  present  kitchen,  bears  witness. 

^  Printed  in  Nichols's  Literary  Anecdotes,  ii.  536. 


92         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

The  northern  primacy,  when  it  was  vacated  by 
Hutton,  was  filled  by  John  Gilbert,  a  man  who, 
according  to  Horace  Walpole,^  was  "  composed  of 
that  common  mixture,  ignorance,  meanness,  and  arro- 
gance," On  the  news  of  his  promotion  the  bells  at 
York  were  rung  backwards  in  detestation  of  him.  He 
made  little  mark  during  his  pontificate  of  four  years, 
being  indeed  oppressed  by  ill-health  throughout  that 
time ;  but  at  Bishopthorpe  a  good  deal  remains  to 
commemorate  him.  Canon  Keble,  quoting  from 
Dixon's^  MSS.,  says  that  he  "altered  the  windows 
in  the  large  dining-room,  laid  the  floor  in  the  hall 
with  Roche  Abbey  stone  and  black  marble,  repaired 
the  staircase  in  the  hall,  and  ornamented  the  walls  and 
ceiling  like  the  old  drawing-room  above  stairs  (after- 
wards the  library  of  Archbishop  Markham)  ;  and  in 
the  place  where  the  pigeon-house  formerly  stood  he 
built  a  wash-house,  and  over  it  a  laundry."  He  seems 
to  have  given  the  archbishop's  stall  to  the  chapel, 
"  which,"  says  Canon  Dixon,  '*  previously  to  the 
alterations  in  1840  had  over  it  a  clumsy  canopy  sup- 
ported by  two  pillars,  which,  when  the  curtains  were 
drawn,  had  very  much  the  appearance  of  a  four-post 
bed.  This,  from  the  coat-of-arms  over  the  chair,  may 
safely  be  assigned  to  the  taste  of  Archbishop  Gilbert." 

It  was,  however,  the  next  archbishop,  Robert  Hay 
Drummond,  "  a  man  of  parts  and  of  the  world,  and 
a  dignified  and  accomplished  prelate,"  who  made  the 
greatest  changes  and  enlargements  at  Bishopthorpe 
since  the  original  manor-house  had  been  first  added 
to  by  Rotheram.  Drummond  practically  trans- 
formed the  entire  residence,  and  the  alterations  made 
by  him  were  great  improvements  as  far  as  convenience 

*  Memoirs  of  George  II.,  ii.  374. 

-  Canon  Dixon  was  at  one  time  Vicar  of  Bishopthorpe. 


BISHOPTHORPE  93 

was  concerned,  but  the  taste  of  the  period  proved  a 
hopeless  drawback  to  any  true  artistic  design  or  con- 
tinuity in  the  construction  of  the  new  buildings. 
Indeed,  the  preservation  of  the  old  character  of  the 
house  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  the  architect, 
Thomas  Atkinson  of  York,  who  preferred  to  adhere 
to  the  fashionable  Strawberry-Hill  style  of  the  age, 
and  reproduced  a  semblance  of  Gothic  architecture 
entirely  wanting  in  its  spirit.  The  entrance  gateway 
which  he  built  in  1765,  partly  from  stone  taken  from 
the  ruins  of  Cawood,  is  a  striking  example  of  this. 
Drummond  pulled  down  the  old  stables  and  built 
the  present  ones,  including  a  coach-house,  brewhouse, 
bakehouse,  and  living-rooms,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
gateway.  He  demolished  the  old  Early  English  west 
front  of  the  house,  and  threw  the  whole  forward, 
adding  the  present  drawing-room  and  business-room, 
and  greatly  enlarging  the  entrance-hall.  The  servants' 
hall  and  other  offices  were  built  underneath,  as  well  as 
new  rooms  above,  and  a  flight  of  stone  steps  leading 
up  to  the  main  entrance  under  a  somewhat  florid 
porchway  was  also  constructed.  The  archbishop, 
who  loved  the  old  house,  spared  no  pains  in  remodel- 
ling it.  Nor  did  he  neglect  the  chapel  and  the  garden. 
The  latter  he  laid  out  anew,  and  the  chapel  windows 
he  filled  with  stained  glass,  probably  putting  down 
the  black  and  white  marble  pavement  at  the  same 
time.  Drummond's  generosity  was  one  of  his  most 
attractive  characteristics,  and  he  was  renowned  for  his 
open-handed  hospitality.  The  death  of  his  wife  in 
1773  was  a  grievous  blow,  from  which  he  never 
recovered.  He  died  three  years  later  at  Bishopthorpe, 
and  was  buried  under  the  altar  of  the  parish  church, 
according  to  his  desire,  with  as  little  display  as 
possible. 


94         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF    YORK 

His  successor,  William  Markham,  occupied  the  see 
of  York  for  nearly  thirty-one  years,  from  1777  until 
1807.  He  did  not  confine  his  attention  to  his  diocese, 
and  took  no  small  share  in  public  affairs.  In  the  same 
year  that  he  was  consecrated  to  York  he  was  appointed 
Lord  High  Almoner  and  a  member  of  the  Privy 
Council.  Contemporary  writers  allude  to  his  hot 
temper,  his  pompous  bearing,  and  especially  to  his 
commanding  presence.  He  was  a  friend  of  Lord 
Mansfield,  and  narrowly  escaped  from  the  Gordon 
rioters  when  they  attacked  the  latter's  house  in  London. 
He  was  also  very  intimate  with  Edmund  Burke,  until 
the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings  severed  their  friend- 
ship, and  he  is  said  to  have  corrected  and  revised 
Burke's  Philosophical  Inquiry  into  the  Origin  of  our 
Ideas  on  the  Sublime  and  the  Beautiful.  Markham's 
attention  to  Bishopthorpe  was  chiefly  directed  to  the 
kitchen  garden  of  seven  acres.  According  to  a  writer 
of  1788,  he  "built  a  large  icehouse,  an  exceedingly 
good,  convenient  pinery,  and  a  flued  wall  181  feet 
in  length." 

Archbishop  Edward  Vernon,  afterwards  Harcourt, 
who  succeeded  him,  had  an  even  longer  tenure  of  the 
primacy,  which  extended  to  nearly  forty  years.  He 
lived,  universally  respected  and  esteemed,  to  the  age 
of  ninety,  and  during  the  reigns  of  five  sovereigns. 
He  customarily  spent  about  four  months  of  the  year 
at  Bishopthorpe,  where  he  enlarged  the  beautiful 
grounds,  laid  out  by  Drummond,  by  taking  in  the 
old  "  coney-garth,"  or  warren.  He  also  made  several 
additions  to  the  house,  one  of  which,  the  story  of 
nurseries  built  above  the  chapel,  is  greatly  to  be 
regretted.  The  chapel  itself  he  fitted  with  oak  sittings, 
at  the  same  time  removing  the  white  paint  from  the 
old  oak  pulpit.     He  built  the  present  library  and  the 


BISHOPTHORPE  95 

rooms  above  it,  and  probably  raised  the  eastern  part  of 
Rotheram's  wing. 

The  older  inhabitants  of  the  village  still  remember 
the  kind  archbishop  and  his  wife,  Lady  Anne,  who 
dispensed  such  lavish  hospitality,  and  on  Tuesday  and 
Friday  of  every  week  gave  away  two  loaves  of  bread 
and  a  threepenny-piece  to  the  poor  who  flocked  to 
their  gates.  Archbishop  Harcourt's  large  private 
fortune  enabled  him  to  do  a  great  deal  of  good 
work,  and  he  contributed  large  sums  to  the  resto- 
ration of  York  Minster,  which  was  twice  burnt  in  his 
time. 

About  two  years  before  her  accession  as  queen, 
Princess  Victoria,  to  the  delight  of  the  villagers,  spent 
nearly  a  week  at  Bishopthorpe  with  her  mother,  passing 
much  of  the  time  at  York,  and  on  Sunday  attending 
the  service  at  Bishopthorpe  Church. 

Archbishop  Harcourt,  who  was  much  lamented, 
died  on  5th  November  1847,  in  the  room  on  the 
north  side  of  the  dining-room.  He  was  followed  by 
Thomas  Musgrave,  the  son  of  a  tailor  at  Cambridge, 
who  is  said  to  have  made  clothes  at  one  time  for 
Archbishop  Harcourt,  and  to  have  once  brought  his 
boy  Thomas  to  Bishopthorpe,  which  the  latter  was 
destined  to  enter  the  second  time  as  primate.  His 
father  was  wealthy  enough  to  give  him  a  sound 
education,  sending  him  to  the  first-rate  grammar 
school  at  Richmond  in  Yorkshire,  and  afterwards  to 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  where  he  attained  no 
little  distinction.  The  liberality  of  his  political  views 
ensured  his  appreciation  by  the  Whig  Government, 
and  having  entered  the  Church,  he  obtained  rapid 
preferment.  In  1848  he  was  enthroned  as  primate 
in  York  Minster,  and  for  twelve  years  administered 
the  afi^airs  of  the  see  with  moderation  and  good  sense, 


96         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

though  strongly  opposed  to  any  kind  of  reform.  He 
was  fond  of  retirement,  and  was  greatly  attached  to 
his  garden  and  farm  at  Bishopthorpe.  During  his 
residence  the  Italian  garden  to  the  north  of  the 
house  was  laid  out  under  the  direction  of  Nesfield 
the  artist. 

The  name  of  Archbishop  Charles  Longley  is  more 
closely  associated  with  Canterbury  than  with  York, 
where  he  spent  two  years  only,  from  i860  till  1862, 
when  he  was  translated  to  the  southern  province.  His 
successor  was  the  much-beloved  Archbishop  William 
Thomson,  who  sat  for  over  twenty-eight  years,  and 
despatched  all  the  affairs  of  the  see  with  indefatigable 
zeal.  His  tastes  were  scientific  rather  than  classical, 
and  as  a  youth  he  had  interrupted  his  studies  at  Oxford 
by  the  composition  of  a  treatise  on  logic,  called  Out- 
lines of  the  Laws  of  Thought^  which  attracted  great 
attention.  On  his  accession  to  the  primacy  he  found 
the  reputation  of  the  Church  in  the  north  at  a  very  low 
ebb,  the  number  of  clergy  and  places  of  worship  utterly 
inadequate  to  the  rapidly  increasing  population,  and  a 
general  feeling  that  the  Church  was  an  archaic  and 
useless  institution.  Thomson  devoted  himself  to  the 
removal  of  this  opposition,  and  by  invariable  attend- 
ance at  all  public  meetings,  by  argument,  preaching, 
and  constant  appeals  to  the  northern  good  sense,  he 
gradually  won  the  affection  and  esteem  of  all  classes, 
and  converted  indifference  to  his  ideals  into  enthusiasm 
both  for  them  and  for  himself.  At  Sheffield,  where  on 
his  arrival  there  was  only  one  church  for  eight  thousand 
inhabitants,  he  was  particularly  successful  among  the 
manufacturing  population,  whose  attention  he  riveted 
by  his  first  speech  in  defence  of  the  English  Church. 
His  views  were  liberal  and  tolerant,  and  on  one  occasion 
he  expressed  the  opinion  that  in  matters  of  doctrine  or 


BISHOPTHORPE  97 

ritual  it  was  necessary  to  consider,  not  whether  a  man's 
views  were  in  absolute  harmony  with  the  teaching  of 
his  Church,  but  whether  they  were  so  divergent  as  to 
preclude  any  possibility  of  toleration.  Thomson  also 
took  a  vigorous  and  prominent  part  in  all  ecclesiastical 
legislation,  and  was  regarded  as  a  leading  authority. 
His  labours  at  last  broke  down  his  health,  and  he  died 
on  Christmas  Day  1 890.  He  was  buried  in  the  church- 
yard at  Bishopthorpe,  his  pall  being  carried  by  the 
working  men  of  Sheffield,  on  whom  he  had  made  so 
profound  an  impression. 

Various  improvements  were  made  at  Bishopthorpe 
while  he  lived  there.  The  old  fish-pond  between  the 
house  and  the  church  was  drained  and  planted  with 
shrubs.  New  windows  and  skylights  were  introduced 
into  the  house.  A  gasometer  was  erected  in  the 
stableyard,  which  supplied  the  house  and  church  until 
gas  was  laid  on  to  the  village  from  York  in  1867, 
and  a  water-tower  was  built,  which  was  used  until 
1898. 

In  the  autumn  of  1866  the  Prince  and  Princess  of 
Wales  spent  two  or  three  days  at  Bishopthorpe,  and 
occupied  the  large  rooms  in  the  north  wing. 

Archbishop  William  Connor  Magee,  who  had  ac- 
quired a  brilliant  reputation  as  an  orator,  both  in  the 
pulpit  and  in  Parliament,  succeeded  to  the  primacy  at 
the  beginning  of  1891,  but  occupied  it  only  for  the 
few  remaining  weeks  of  his  life.  Although  he  lived 
at  Bishopthorpe  for  such  a  short  time,  he  left  his  mark 
there  by  more  than  one  convenient  alteration.  The 
lift  from  the  basement  to  the  upper  story  is  due  to 
him,  and  he  closed  Archbishop  Frewen's  door  from 
the  dining-room  to  the  chapel,  making  the  present 
one,  which  leads  from  the  hall  close  to  the  earliest 
doorway  of  Archbishop  Gray. 


98         EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

Archbishop  Magee  died  in  London,  and  was  buried 
in  the  cathedral  at  Peterborough,  where  he  had  pre- 
sided as  bishop  for  over  thirty  years.  On  his  death, 
Bishopthorpe  became  the  home  of  the  revered  Arch- 
bishop William  D.  Maclagan,  who  relinquished  it  only 
at  the  beginning  of  last  year.  Under  his  careful 
superintendence  much  was  done  to  suit  the  house 
to  modern  needs;  the  chapel,  above  all,  was  restored 
in  the  most  perfect  taste,  and  rendered  the  now 
beautiful  little  oratory,  consecrated  for  centuries  to 
the  service  of  God,  in  which  the  incense  of  prayer 
may  worthily  be  offered  up.  The  archbishop's  chief 
addition  to  the  house  was  a  large  room,  built  in 
1894,  which  can  accommodate  about  two  hundred 
people,  and  is  particularly  useful  for  meetings  and 
gatherings  of  all  kinds.  He  also  improved  the 
library  by  removing  part  of  the  north  wing, 
which  shaded  it  from  the  light,  and  constructed  a 
wooden  staircase  leading  from  a  door  in  one  of  the 
Early  English  windows  to  the  river  terrace.  The 
chapel  is  essentially  the  least  altered  part  of  the  old 
thirteenth-century  manor-house,  and  the  restoration 
and  decoration  have  been  carried  out  with  a  due 
regard  to  its  time-honoured  foundation  and  ancient 
design.  The  crude  stained  glass  put  in  by  Arch- 
bishop Drummond  was  replaced  by  the  exquisite 
workmanship  of  Mr.  Kempe,  and  a  new  east  window 
made,  to  correspond  with  the  old  and  beautiful  series 
of  Lancet-Gothic  windows  in  the  south  wall.  The 
floor  was  lowered  ten  inches,  and  three  steps  added 
to  the  sanctuary,  which  was  paved  with  polished  black 
and  white  marble  set  in  squares.  All  traces  of  paint 
were  removed  from  the  walls,  the  arcading  and  stone 
bench  around  were  restored,  and  the  doorway  which 
once  formed  the  entrance  into  the  great  hall  was  re- 


BISHOPTHORPE  99 


opened.  Oak  panelling  was  made  to  harmonise  with 
Archbishop  Frewen's  work,  and  the  unsightly  heating 
apparatus  removed  and  replaced  by  a  new  one  in  the 
crypt.  The  ceiling,  now  flat  on  account  of  the  nur- 
series built  overhead  by  Archbishop  Harcourt,  was 
coloured  in  squares  of  red  and  green,  embellished 
in  the  sanctuary  with  gold.  The  whole  work  is 
greatly  to  be  admired,  and  is  a  fitting  memorial  of 
the  archbishop  who  for  so  many  years  filled  his  high 
position  with  so  much  earnestness  and  devotion,  and 
has  now  said  a  last  and  sad  farewell  to  the  home 
which  he  loved. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  Bishop- 
thorpe  is  the  collection  of  pictures,  including  an 
almost  complete  series  of  portraits  of  the  archbishops 
from  Wolsey  onwards,  which  hang  in  the  spacious 
dining-room.  Some  of  them  are  magnificent  pictures, 
notably  the  portraits  of  Lamplugh  and  Dawes  by 
Kneller,  Markham  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  and 
Herring,  which  is  said  to  be  by  Hogarth.  There 
are  fine  pictures  of  Longley  by  Richmond,  and 
Thomson  by  Ouless.  The  portrait  of  Accepted 
Frewen  by  an  unknown  artist  is  not  one  of  the 
best,  but  hangs,  as  that  of  the  restorer  of  the  dining- 
hall  should,  in  the  place  of  honour  above  the  mantel- 
piece. The  little  picture  of  Wolsey  is  done  on 
wood. 

The  entire  gallery  forms  a  splendid  addition  to  the 
noble  inheritance  of  the  new  archbishop.  Dr.  Cosmo 
Gordon  Lang,  who  was  enthroned  in  York  Minster  in 
January  of  last  year.  Fair  and  stately  as  his  abode  is, 
the  thought  of  entering  into  a  house  with  nearly  a 
hundred  rooms  might  almost  inspire  a  feeling  of  lone- 
liness in  the  heart  of  a  bachelor  who  took  up  his  work 
with  less  energy  and  courage.     The  peaceful  situation, 


loo       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

however,  the  far-stretching  and  beautifully-wooded 
grounds,  and  the  rush  of  the  broad  river  below  the 
eastern  windows,  all  add  to  its  charm,  and  cannot  fail 
to  win  the  affection  of  the  newly-installed  ruler  of  the 
northern  province. 


©ur^attt  Cae^fe 


"This  is  a  burg  renowned  throughout  Britain, 
Established  on  high,  stones  round  about 
Wondrously  piled.    Wear  floweth  round, 
A  stream  mighty  in  flood.     And  therein  dwell 
Full  many  kinds  of  fish  'neath  its  waters. 

In  that  burg  also,  well-known  to  mankind, 

Is  the  holy  Saint  Cuthbert  with  the  head  of  Oswald, 

Pure  king.  Lion  of  the  English,  and  Aidan  the  Bishop, 

Eadbert  and  Eadfrith — illustrious  companions. 

Herein  with  them  is  Ethelwold  the  Bishop, 

With  Bede  the  great  bookman,  and  Bosil  the  Abbot, 

Who  kindly  instructed  Cuthbert  the  pure-heart 

In  learning,  and  he  well  received  instruction. 

And  there  abide  for  the  Saint  in  the  Minster 

Unnumbered  relics, 

Which  (honoured  by  many  marvels  as  the  book  telleth) 

Are  with  God's  servant  awaiting  the  Judgment."  ^ 

SUCH  is  the  earliest  known  description  of  the  river- 
girdled  peninsula,  on  which,  in  the  eleventh 
century,  the  castle  of  Durham  was  first  planted 
to  hold  and  defend  the  position.  To  this 
peninsula  the  ordering  of  secular  and  religious  authority 
were  transferred  from  two  older  Northumbrian  centres, 
in  which  the  rule  of  king  and  of  bishop  had  been 
exercised  for  several  centuries  before  Durham  became 
the  seat  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction.  Perhaps 
it  may  give  clearness  to  our  story  of  the  castle  if  some- 
thing is  said  first  of  all  concerning  that  earlier  stage  of 

^  Translated  literally  from  a  Saxon  description  of  Durham,  preserved  in 
a  twelfth-century  copy  of  Simeon  of  Durham,  in  the  University  Library  at 
Cambridge.  Printed  in  the  Rolls  Series  edition  of  Simeon,  i.  221.  The 
translation  is  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Ellershaw,  Professor  of  English  in  the 
University  of  Durham. 


I02       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

Northumbrian  history  when  sceptre  and  crozier  were 
wielded  elsewhere  than  at  Durham. 

A  glance  at  the  map  of  England  will  show  on  the 
east  coast,  not  far  from  Berwick-upon-Tweed,  Barn- 
burgh  and  Lindisfarne,  the  primitive  homes  of  royal  and 
rehgious  dominion  among  the  Anglians  of  the  North. 
On  the  rocky  promontory  of  Bamburgh,  King  Ida  built 
his  castle  at  the  coming  of  the  English,  and  his  Anglian 
successors  ruled  there  after  him  for  many  a  year.  Even 
to-day  the  mediaeval  and  modern  representative  of  that 
chief  castle  of  the  old  Northumbrian  royal  house  still 
overhangs  the  waves  that  break  below  it. 

Lindisfarne,  or  Holy  Isle,  was  given  by  King 
Oswald  to  St.  Aidan  in  the  seventh  century,  when 
the  Northumbrians  accepted  the  Christian  faith.  Here 
his  episcopal  successors  ruled,  and  established  Chris- 
tianity in  the  districts  which  we  now  call  Northumber- 
land and  Durham.  The  body  of  St.  Cuthbert,  a  saint 
more  renowned  than  even  St.  Aidan,  was  their  chief 
treasure,  and  was  jealously  guarded  in  the  monastery 
church  at  Lindisfarne  until  troublous  times  came  upon 
the  monks. 

It  is  then  to  Bamburgh  and  to  Lindisfarne  that  we 
must  look  for  the  origin  of  that  double  sovereignty 
which,  in  the  eleventh  century,  was  united  in  the  hands 
of  the  prelate  whom  the  Conqueror  placed  in  Durham. 
The  origin  of  the  transfer  of  the  two  jurisdictions  to 
Durham  is  to  be  found  in  the  disaster  which  befell 
Northumbria  when  the  force  of  Danish  invasion  came 
upon  it.  That  calamity  altered  all  the  relations  of 
Church  and  State  in  the  district,  and  indeed  changed 
the  whole  course  of  history  in  the  north  of  England. 
First  the  Lindisfarne  clergy  fled  from  Holy  Island, 
when  the  rage  of  the  Danes  swept  over  the  coast,  and 
carried  with  them  the  body  of  St.  Cuthbert : 


DURHAM   CASTLE  103 

"  From  sea  to  sea,  from  shore  to  shore, 
Seven  years  St.  Cuthbert's  corpse  they  bore." 

And  when  those  years  of  wandering  were  over,  the 
congregation  of  St.  Cuthbert,  as  the  community  were 
called,  settled  at  the  old  Roman  town  of  Chester-le- 
Street,  where  for  113  years  the  shrine  was  a  much- 
sought  centre  of  pilgrimage,  to  which  privileges  and 
rights  were  given  by  successive  kings.  Meanwhile 
the  old  Northumbrian  line  at  Bamburgh  came  to  an 
end  when  the  Danes  built  up  a  great  Danish  king- 
dom with  its  capital  at  York.  But  if  the  royal  house 
reigned  no  longer  in  the  castle  of  Ida,  the  fortress  con- 
tinued to  be  in  the  main  the  citadel  of  the  Earls  of 
Northumbria,  who  were  first  set  up  by  the  Danes,  and 
through  whom  the  conquerors  ruled  over  the  English 
folk. 

So  the  land  between  Tweed  and  Tees  settled  down 
in  comparative  peace  under  its  native  viceroys,  who 
ruled  in  the  name  of  the  Danes,  until  at  the  close  of 
the  tenth  century  a  great  turning-point  in  the  history 
of  the  Danish  invasions  is  reached.  In  those  last  years 
of  the  century,  when  the  hearts  of  churchmen  were 
possessed  by  expectation  of  the  speedy  end  of  the 
world,  fresh  incursions  of  Danes  took  place.  The 
attempt  was  now  deliberately  made  to  conquer  Eng- 
land once  for  all,  and  to  incorporate  it  into  a  great 
Scandinavian  empire. 

It  was  the  rumoured  approach  of  the  earliest 
bands  connected  with  this  enterprise  that  led  to  the 
beginnings  of  Durham  history.  The  story,  as  it  was 
afterwards  treasured  up  at  Durham,  told  how  the  con- 
gregation of  St.  Cuthbert  at  Chester-le-Street  deter- 
mined to  flee  with  the  body  of  the  saint  to  Ripon, 
which  once  for  a  brief  time  had  been  his  home.  So 
the  uprooting  of  the  whole  establishment  was  carried 


I04       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

out,  and  as  they  did  in  later  days  from  fear  of  the 
Scots,  so  now  in  terror  at  the  Danish  advance  men  and 
cattle  alike  took  the  road,  and  crossed  the  Tees  into 
Yorkshire. 

The  year  was  995,  but  long  before  it  ran  out, 
the  instant  alarm  began  to  yield,  and  the  congrega- 
tion determined  to  return  to  Chester-le-Street.  Un- 
fortunately we  have  no  really  contemporary  account 
of  how  St,  Cuthbert  came  to  Durham,  and  are  de- 
pendent upon  the  story  which  aged  men  who  had 
taken  part  in  the  coming  handed  on  and  perpetuated 
there.  At  all  events  the  two  chief  actors  in  the  scene 
are  the  Bishop  Aldhune  and  his  son-in-law,  Uchtred 
the  Earl  of  Northumbria.  Legend  has  been  spun 
round  the  few  facts  that  have  come  down  to  us,  yet 
it  is  not  impossible,  perhaps,  to  brush  away  the  web 
and  to  discover  what  lies  below.  The  land  was  still 
disturbed,  and  all  sorts  of  rumours  were  afloat,  whilst 
many  thought  that  the  end  of  the  world  was  near. 
We  need  not  take  seriously  the  story  of  the  halting 
car,  the  fast  and  prayer,  and  then  the  divine  revela- 
tion. May  we  not  readily  see  that  the  earl  was 
unwilling  that  the  sacred  relics  should  leave  the 
district  again,  and  that  he  desired  them  to  find  some 
safe  resting-place  in  his  dominions  ^  Chester-le-Street, 
despite  its  Roman  walls,  its  sanctuary  and  privilege, 
was  clearly  no  longer  tenable  before  a  new  generation 
of  invaders,  who  recked  nothing  of  sacred  bond  or 
curse.  But  those  who  fared  north  along  the  Roman 
road  that  led  from  the  Tees  to  Chester-le-Street  knew 
well  the  woody  steep  of  Dunholm,  which  Nature  had 
so  splendidly  fortified.  And  here  it  was  decided, 
probably,  between  Uchtred  and  Aldhune,  that  the 
resting-place  of  the  saint  should  be  fixed.  It  is  not 
improbable,  too,  that  other  considerations  induced  the 


DURHAM    CASTLE  105 

earl  to  select  an  impregnable  position  for  what  was 
now  to  be,  in  place  of  Chester-le-Street  and  of  Lin- 
disfarne,  the  citadel  of  Christianity  in  the  north  of 
England.  The  power  of  the  earl  had  recently  been 
cut  short  by  the  cession  of  Cumberland  to  the  Scots, 
who  had  pushed  south  the  frontiers  of  the  Lothians, 
and  it  is  a  plausible  suggestion  that  Uchtred  desired  in 
addition  to  Bamburgh  a  more  southerly  fortress  to 
help  in  holding  the  district.  But,  be  this  as  it  may, 
the  whole  retinue  which  had  followed  the  bier  from 
Ripon  now  turned  aside,  and  bore  the  body  of  the  saint 
across  the  river  and  up  the  precipitous  banks  to  the 
one  spot  at  the  summit  which  was  then  free  from  the 
dense  wood  that  grew  in  profusion  there. 

The  congregation  took  possession  of  their  new 
refuge  with  all  solemnity,  whilst  Earl  Uchtred  busied 
himself  to  make  the  place  habitable.  Exercising  his 
sovereign  authority,  he  called  on  all  men  living  between 
Coquet  and  Tees  (the  limits  at  the  moment  of  his 
jurisdiction,  it  would  seem)  to  repair  to  Durham  and 
cut  down  the  wood,  and  to  make  ready  the  saint's 
abode.  Houses  were  built,  and  before  long  the  White 
Church,  the  first  stone  church  at  Durham,  was  com- 
menced by  the  ready  co-operation  of  Uchtred's  people. 
The  sacred  domain  of  the  congregation  between  the 
Tyne  and  the  Wear,  which  had  long  since  been  be- 
stowed upon  the  followers  of  the  saint,  was  at  once 
increased  by  gifts  and  further  endowments,  and  thus 
the  famous  patrimony  of  St.  Cuthbert  grew  towards 
its  mediaeval  dimensions,  when  it  included  the  greater 
part  of  the  county  of  Durham,  with  Islandshire, 
Norhamshire,  and  Bedlingtonshire  in  Northumber- 
land, and  also  Crayke,  Allertonshire,  and  Howdenshire 
in  the  county  of  York. 

So  the  crozier  came  to  Durham,  and  as  the  Durham 


io6       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

chronicler  truly  says  :  "In  such  wise  even  to  the  present 
day  the  episcopal  see  together  with  the  saint's  body  has 
continued  in  this  place,  the  see  which  at  the  first  had 
been  set  up  in  the  Island  of  Lindisfarne  by  King  Oswald 
and  Bishop  Aidan."  As  for  the  city  itself,  walls  were 
built  round  it,  and  the  shrine  of  St.  Cuthbert  soon 
became  even  more  attractive  in  its  new  home  than  it 
had  been  at  Chester-le-Street,  or  at  Lindisfarne. 

We  have  still  to  see  how  the  sceptre  came  to  Durham. 
Let  us  pass  over  the  troublous  years  that  tested  the 
strength  of  the  new  walls,  with  the  barest  mention  of 
their  character.  There  were  renewed  invasions  of  the 
Danes,  whilst  at  least  three  sieges  were  pressed  by  the 
Scots,  who  at  Carham  in  1018  inflicted  a  crushing 
defeat  upon  the  people  of  St,  Cuthbert,  and  cut  short 
the  northern  boundaries  of  the  earl's  dominions.  Yet, 
even  so,  there  were  intervals  of  peace,  and  the  reign 
of  Canute  is  probably  responsible  for  the  restoration 
of  much  that  had  been  damaged  or  destroyed  in  the 
days  of  the  Danes.  Fresh  endowments  were  made 
by  Canute  and  Athelstan,  which  served  to  establish 
and  enrich  the  Cuthbertine  community.  But  the  years 
passed  on,  and  at  last  the  Norman  invasion  opens  a 
chapter  of  desperate  resistance,  of  submission  made 
and  forgotten,  of  treacherous  bloodshed,  and  then  ends 
with  the  story  of  that  blackened,  ruined  Northumbria, 
in  the  midst  of  which  Durham  Castle  first  took  its 
rise.  It  was  in  the  autumn  of  1066  that  William 
of  Normandy  fought  the  battle  of  Hastings,  and  at 
Christmas  in  Westminster  Abbey  he  was  hallowed 
as  King  of  the  English.  Although  the  Archbishop 
of  York  crowned  the  Conqueror,  there  were  few  in 
Northumbria,  at  all  events,  who  meant  to  submit. 
We  can  imagine  how  the  citizens  of  Durham  sought 
for  news,  and  what  busy,  eager  questioning  there  was 


DURHAM    CASTLE  107 

as  to  the  future.  Nowhere  did  a  more  strong  and 
ardent  patriotism  inspire  the  hearts  of  Englishmen, 
and  when  the  Earl  of  Northumbria  submitted  to 
William  and  was  appointed  to  act  as  his  lieutenant 
in  the  north,  a  fierce  and  determined  rebellion  broke 
out.  The  Northumbrians  took  advantage  of  the 
absence  of  the  king  in  Normandy,  and  planned  a 
general  massacre  of  the  Normans  in  England.  The 
idea  was  to  join  hands  with  the  Danes,  and  to  place 
Edgar  Atheling  upon  the  throne  of  England.  Such 
was  the  news  that  came  to  Normandy,  and  brought 
William  back  to  deal  with  this  really  formidable  re- 
bellion. The  northerners  heard  of  his  arrival,  and 
so  great  was  the  spell  of  the  Conqueror  that  the 
scheme  practically  collapsed.  But  some  of  the  fiercer 
spirits,  if  we  may  trust  a  Norman  chronicler  of  repute, 
fled  to  Durham,  whose  walls  had  already  more  than 
once  withstood  a  siege,  and  set  to  work  to  erect  as 
strong  a  castle  as  they  could  within  the  city  precincts, 
and  so  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure.  Durham  was 
now  the  very  heart  of  the  English  cause  in  the  north. 
Gospatric,  the  new  earl,  was  only  one  of  several  great 
nobles  who  rallied  the  Northumbrians  to  resist  the 
advance  of  William.  Their  chance  of  success  might 
seem  to  promise  well,  for  the  people  of  the  district  had 
never  yet  owned  the  Conqueror  as  lord,  whilst  the 
adhesion  of  Malcolm,  King  of  Scotland,  cemented  a 
wide  and  compact  opposition  extending  from  York 
right  into  Scotland.  But  once  more  when  news  came, 
not  now  of  William's  arrival  in  England,  but  of  his 
stern  and  massive  march  as  far  as  Warwick,  the 
Northumbrians,  for  all  their  brave  array,  began  to 
melt  away.  The  earl  and  Edgar,  and  other  repre- 
sentatives of  the  English  cause,  fled  into  Scotland, 
and  the  rest,  after  lingering  on  within  the  fastness  of 


io8       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

Durham,  took  refuge  in  various  corners  where  they 
thought  that  the  Normans  could  not  penetrate. 
Meantime  William  had  reached  York,  where  several 
submissions  were  made,  and  among  those  who  did 
homage  was  the  Bishop  Ethelwine — up  to  this  time, 
apparently,  with  all  his  people  a  steadfast  opponent 
of  the  Normans. 

But  the  hearts  of  the  men  of  Durham  were  not 
with  their  bishop.  William  had  found  out  that  he 
could  not  trust  Englishmen  in  places  of  importance, 
and  so  he  appointed  as  Earl  of  Northumbria  Robert 
Comine,  one  of  his  own  followers.  The  tragedy  that 
followed  was  never  forgotten  by  conqueror  or  by 
people.  The  new  earl  came  to  Durham  with  a  force 
of  700  men,  and  lodged  with  his  only  friend  in  all  the 
hostile  city,  Bishop  Ethelwine.  But  how  could  the 
men  of  Durham  accept  a  foreign  earl,  when  even  in 
Danish  days  a  native  Northumbrian  ruler  had  always 
been  their  chieftain  ?  Next  morning,  before  dawn 
came  on  that  cold  winter's  day,  the  inhabitants  rose 
and  murdered  the  earl's  soldiery  until  the  streets  ran 
with  blood,  and  every  place  seemed  full  of  corpses. 
The  bishop's  house  was  close  to  the  church  apparently, 
and  in  no  connection  with  the  castle,  whatever  it  may 
have  been,  which  the  malcontents  had  built  a  year  or 
two  before.  Vengeance  for  the  massacre  was  delayed, 
but  it  could  not  be  long  delayed,  for  the  Northumbrians 
were  already  rallying  again  to  the  banner  of  Edgar 
Atheling,  their  chosen  prince  of  the  old  English  line. 
When,  then,  the  patriot  forces  concentrated  at  York, 
William  began  to  move  his  forces,  and  came  upon  the 
city,  slaying,  capturing,  or  putting  to  flight  the  whole 
army  of  the  English.  Durham  itself,  for  the  present, 
was  left  untouched,  and  the  legend  of  later  days  ran 
that  the  troops  of  William  were  unable  to  reach  the 


DURHAM   CASTLE  109 

city  owing  to  some  Egyptian  darkness  which  the 
intercession  of  St.  Cuthbert  had  produced.  Probably 
the  king's  services  were  required  in  the  south,  and 
no  doubt,  the  chosen  warriors,  apart  from  the  ecclesias- 
tics of  Durham,  had  suffered  condign  punishment  at 
York. 

Later  in  this  year  the  implacable  resentment  of 
the  northern  English  towards  the  Normans  was  ex- 
hibited when  another  rising  took  place  in  favour  of 
Edgar  Atheling.  The  prospect  of  success  seemed  so 
bright  that  the  cowed  and  broken  northerners  plucked 
up  heart,  and  joined  the  troops  of  Danes  who  poured 
into  the  country.  All  the  people  joined  in  exultingly, 
and  their  short-lived  joy  was  long  remembered.  Again 
William  marched,  and  this  time  there  was  to  be  no 
premature  clemency,  and  no  turning  back.  He  meant 
to  teach  English,  Danes,  and  Scots  alike  that  no  resist- 
ance could  prosper,  and  to  teach  it  once  for  all.  It 
may  be  doubted  whether  the  ordinary  reader  of  Eng- 
lish history  takes  in  the  full  extent  and  horror  of  the 
ruthless  Norman  vengeance.  The  sack  of  York  was 
pitiable  enough,  but  it  was  only  the  beginning  of  woes. 
Every  historian  of  the  period  unites  to  picture  the 
scene  in  the  most  lurid  colours,  and  when  we  place 
together  the  various  local  lines  of  tradition  that  they 
have  handed  down,  we  read  surely  the  most  pitiful  page 
in  English  history.  The  Durham  monk  who  preserved 
the  Durham  recollection  says  that  the  harrying  of 
Northumbria,  which  lasted  the  winter  through,  whilst 
men  were  slain  and  houses  were  burnt,  produced  an 
unequalled  scene  of  misery.  "  It  was  dreadful,"  he 
tells  us,  "  to  see  human  corpses  all  rotting  in  houses, 
streets,  and  highways,  whilst  the  stench  filled  the  air 
with  deadly  exhalations,  for  all  the  people  being  cut 
off  by  the  sword  or  by  famine  there  was  none  left  to 


no       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

bury  them.  The  land  was  nothing  but  a  dreary  waste 
for  nine  years,  with  none  to  till  it.  Between  York  and 
Durham  there  was  not  one  inhabited  town ;  only  lairs 
of  wild  beasts  and  haunts  of  robbers  struck  terror  to 
the  hearts  of  all  wayfarers."  The  Norman  chronicler 
tells  us  how  William  "  in  the  fulness  of  his  wrath 
ordered  the  corn  and  cattle,  with  the  implements  of 
husbandry,  and  every  sort  of  provisions,  to  be  collected 
in  heaps  and  set  on  lire  till  the  whole  was  consumed, 
and  thus  destroyed  at  once  all  that  could  serve  for  the 
support  of  life  in  the  whole  country  lying  beyond  the 
Humber."  Nor  did  conscience  let  William  forget  his 
cruel  action.  Li  his  death-bed  discovirse,  a  rhetorical 
composition  based,  no  doubt,  on  his  actual  words,  the 
Conqvieror  is  represented  as  saying  :  "  I  fell  on  the 
English  of  the  northern  counties  like  a  ravening  lion. 
I  commanded  their  houses  and  corn,  with  all  their 
implements  and  furniture,  to  be  burnt  without  dis- 
tinction, and  large  herds  of  cattle  and  beasts  of  burden 
to  be  butchered  wherever  they  were  found.  It  was 
thus  that  I  took  revenge  on  multitudes  of  both  sexes 
by  subjecting  them  to  the  calamity  of  a  cruel  famine  ; 
and  by  so  doing,  alas  me !  became  the  barbarous 
murderer  of  many  thousands,  both  young  and  old,  of 
that  fine  race  of  people." 

The  harrying  of  Northumbria  was  confined  to  the 
district  between  Durham  and  York,  so  that  the  city 
of  Durham  was  now  the  boundary  between  the  old 
patrimony  of  St.  Cuthbert  (Tyne  to  Wear)  and  the 
devastated  district  extending  from  the  Wear  to 
the  Ouse.  Of  that  wide  belt  of  desolation  William 
of  Malmesbury  said  some  years  later :  "  The  ground 
for  more  than  sixty  miles  (about  the  distance  from 
York  to  Durham),  totally  uncultivated  and  unproduc- 
tive, remains  bare  to  the  present  day." 


DURHAM   CASTLE  in 

But  to  return  to  the  Conqueror.  Ethelwine  the 
bishop  fled  to  Lindisfarne  with  the  body  of  St.  Cuth- 
bert  when  he  heard  of  the  Norman  approach,  and  left 
his  cathedral  to  become  a  hospital  for  the  sick  and 
dying  who  were  borne  thither  for  sanctuary.  And 
this  was  the  scene  which  William  witnessed  when 
for  the  first  but  not  the  last  time  he  saw  Durham. 
With  the  spring  Ethelwine  came  back,  but  only  to 
find  himself  deposed  and  outlawed  on  charges  which 
are  rather  obscure,  yet  seem  to  indicate  that  William 
could  not  trust  his  loyalty.  It  was  indeed  part  of  the 
king's  policy  at  this  time  to  exclude  Englishmen  from 
important  posts  and  to  put  foreigners  in  their  places. 
After  an  interval,  a  successor  was  appointed,  and  for 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  see  a  bishop  from 
over  the  seas  was  appointed.  It  is  interesting  to  deter- 
mine the  motives  of  the  choice.  Walcher  was  not  a 
Norman  (perhaps  it  was  unsafe  to  place  a  Norman 
in  Durham),  but  a  man  from  Lorraine.  This  was 
a  district,  in  part  corresponding  to  the  modern  king- 
dom of  Belgium,  and  according  to  Dr.  Freeman  its 
history  was  such  that  Englishmen  could  not  regard 
its  inhabitants  as  utter  aliens.  With  the  Church  of 
Lilttich  (Liege),  with  which  he  had  been  connected, 
the  Normans  had  long  had  some  correspondence,  and 
at  least  one  bishop  of  William's  appointment  had  been 
educated  there.  Possibly,  too,  the  wide  sway  and 
peculiar  jurisdiction  of  Lilttich  were  thought  to  be 
a  good  training  school  for  one  who  was  to  rule  over  a 
see  that  in  its  constitution  and  arrangement  was  already 
unusual.  Walcher  himself  was  worthy  of  the  post, 
and  is  described  by  the  Durham  historian  as  "  of 
noble  birth,  of  no  slight  attainment  in  divine  and 
human  learning."  He  also  mentions  the  bishop's 
reverend  white  hair,  and  his  excellent  life  and  integrity. 


112       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

So  Walcher  was  consecrated  at  Winchester,  and  sent 
with  all  possible  honour  to  Durham,  Gospatric,  the 
disaffected  Earl  of  Northumbria,  being  bidden  to 
convey  the  new  prelate  in  state  from  York  to  his 
diocese.  And  thus  for  the  first  time,  probably,  a 
Bishop  of  Durham  crossed  the  Tees  to  take  pos- 
session of  his  see.  This  function  was  the  last  in 
which  Gospatric  took  his  part  as  earl.  In  the  same 
year,  1072,  Waltheof,  a  young  Normanised  English- 
man of  the  old  Northumbrian  line,  was  appointed 
earl.  Waltheof  had  pursued  a  chequered  career, 
sometimes  in  favour,  and  sometimes  in  disgrace,  yet 
generally  a  favourite  with  English  and  Normans  too. 
He  had  recently  been  induced  to  make  a  final  sub- 
mission to  the  king,  and  was  probably  marked  out 
as  earl,  not  only  because  he  represented  the  old 
Northumbrian  house,  but  because  he  had  become 
half  a  Norman  by  residence  abroad  and  by  association 
with  the  conquerors. 

It  is  on  Waltheof  and  Walcher  that  we  must  now 
fix  our  eyes,  for  the  one  was  the  builder  of  Durham 
Castle,  and  the  other  was  its  first  occupant.  Both 
came  to  a  violent  end  in  those  unsettled  days.  At 
his  consecration,  when  Walcher  drew  all  eyes  to  him 
by  his  venerable  appearance  and  his  ruddy  countenance, 
the  widowed  queen  of  Edward  the  Confessor  ex- 
claimed, "  What  a  goodly  martyr  we  have  here  !  " — 
a  prophecy  which  the  event  brought  to  mind.  How- 
ever impressive  he  might  be,  and  however  pompous 
his  entrance  into  Durham,  it  could  avail  nothing  in 
the  face  of  the  fact  that  he  was  a  foreigner.  Waltheof 
was  a  great  contrast  to  the  prelate.  He  cannot  have 
been  much  more  than  twenty-three  years  of  age,  "  with 
deep  chest,  muscular  arms,  and  in  his  person  tall  and 
robust."     A   strong  and   almost  romantic  friendship 


DURHAM   CASTLE  113 

grew  up  between  the  old  bishop  and  the  earl.  It 
would  almost  seem  that  they  occupied  Durham 
together,  for  no  mention  is  made  of  Bamburgh. 
Just  for  three  years  they  were  associated  together, 
and  Waltheof  supported  Walcher  by  his  presence  in 
church  synod,  and  by  giving  effect  to  the  bishop's 
monitions  for  the  good  of  the  Church.  Durham  Castle 
is  an  evidence  of  that  friendship,  for  the  castle  was 
built  by  Waltheof  for  the  special  protection  of  the 
bishop  and  his  retinue.  The  earl  knew  the  hostility 
of  the  men  of  Durham,  and  desiring  no  repetition 
of  the  Comine  scene,  he  overawed  by  his  presence  and 
his  castle  any  thought  of  rising.  We  have  no  plan 
and  no  description  of  Waltheof's  buildings,  but  the 
evidence  of  the  existing  fabric  and  a  rather  later 
account  help  us  to  fill  out  the  design.  We  must 
imagine  a  barbican  and  entrance  gate  through  which 
access  is  gained  to  a  courtyard.  In  front  rises  a  square 
and  massive  tower,  in  which  the  Norman  chapel  and 
the  first  Norman  hall  were  situated.  To  our  left 
(where  the  kitchen  now  stands)  there  is  another 
equally  massive  tower.  To  the  right,  upon  the  motte 
or  mound,  the  Norman  keep  ascends.  AH  these  main 
buildings  are  united  by  curtain-walls,  whilst  the  angles 
of  the  general  plan  are  marked  by  rounded  turrets. 
The  building  was  begun  in  1072,  and  William,  return- 
ing that  year  from  a  march  into  Scotland,  must  have 
seen,  when  he  came  to  Durham,  the  beginnings  of  the 
Norman  castle.  Norman  masons  and  Norman  archi- 
tects, possibly  under  the  king's  sanction,  must  have 
been  sent  for  by  Waltheof  to  carry  out  the  work. 
To  this  visit  of  William  belongs  one  of  the  most 
curious  and  persistent  of  Durham  legends.  He  can 
have  had  little  reverence  for  St.  Cuthbert,  round  whose 
shrine  such  desperate   resistance   to  the  Norman  had 

H 


114       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

gathered  inspiration.  And  when  the  story  tells  us 
of  his  professed  scepticism,  of  rough  threats,  and  of 
a  sudden  miraculous  stroke  that  convinced  the  king, 
we  shall  not  be  treating  the  legend  cavalierly  if  we 
understand  that  he  actually  thought  of  demolishing 
the  shrine  and  dispersing  its  disaffected  guards,  when 
a  sudden  attack  of  malarial  fever  (not  an  unknown 
visitant  at  Durham)  wrought  on  his  fears,  roused 
the  voice  of  conscience,  and  compelled  him  to  get 
outside  the  patrimony  of  St.  Cuthbert  as  quickly  as 
possible.  After  this  he  confirmed  every  privilege  of 
the  cathedral,  and  so  established  anew  not  merely 
ancient  customs  and  rights,  but  the  sanctity  and 
prestige  of  Durham. 

It  is  scarcely  likely  that  Waltheof  saw  the  com- 
pletion of  the  castle.  He  was  executed  in  1075,  ^^ 
consequence  of  rash  participation  in  a  design  against 
William.  His  fate  invested  him  with  a  halo,  and  his 
grave  at  Croyland  became  a  centre  of  pilgrimage. 
Bishop  Walcher  was  thus  left  single-handed,  with 
none  to  trust  save  his  own  retinue.  The  vacant  earl- 
dom was  now  bestowed  upon  Walcher,  and  it  does  not 
seem  impossible  that  William  had  designed  this.  At 
all  events,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Durham 
we  get  the  union  of  chief  secular  and  religious 
authority  in  the  hands  of  a  bishop.  There  is  indeed 
nothing  to  prove  that  any  bishop  held  this  double 
power  before  Walcher,  wide  as  the  estates  of  the 
bishop  may  have  been  long  before  this.  Clearly  it 
was  centred  at  the  castle,  from  which  the  see  and  the 
earldom  in  Walcher's  time  were  both  administered. 
It  cannot,  however,  be  said  that  the  bishop  proved  a 
great  success.  There  were  many  difficulties,  and  more 
than  one  hint  suggests  that  everything  was  disorganised 
owing   to   the   recent  pillage   and  famine.       Exaction 


DURHAM   CASTLE  115 

seems  to  have  taken  place,  and  this,  combined  with  the 
insolent  presence  of  the  Norman  soldiers  of  the  earl- 
bishop,  served  to  intensify  his  unpopularity.  At  last 
the  murder  of  an  important  Englishman  was  thought 
to  be  by  his  connivance,  and  resentment  rose  to  fever- 
height.  Walcher  had  no  fear.  He  left  the  shelter  of 
his  castle,  where  he  might  have  been  safe,  and  faced  a 
tumultuous  assembly  of  his  tenants  and  dependents  at 
Gateshead.  Here  some  of  the  officers  who  were  most 
obnoxious  were  put  to  death,  and  the  bishop  himself, 
venturing  out  to  the  angry  mob,  Vv^as  seized  and  killed, 
whilst  their  leaders  shouted,  "  Schort  red,  god  red 
(Short  reckoning,  good  reckoning);  slae  ye  the  bischop," 
Then  the  mass  of  them  broke  away  from  the  church 
door  where  this  took  place,  and  rushed  off  over  the 
intervening  few  miles  to  sack  and  destroy  the  hated 
castle  at  Durham.  The  building  had  been  begun  only 
eight  years  before,  but  the  fortifications,  at  all  events, 
were  complete.  For  three  full  days  the  crowd  strove 
to  take  the  fortress,  but  in  vain.  Vengeance  soon 
followed  this  act  of  rebellion  against  William,  and  the 
countryside  was  laid  waste,  not  this  time  to  the  south 
of  the  Wear,  where  all  was  still  desolate,  but  north- 
ward, we  must  suppose,  towards  the  Tyne.  This 
done,  a  garrison  of  Norman  soldiers  was  placed  in  the 
castle  to  overawe  the  men  of  Durham. 

The  castle  had  successfully  withstood  the  first 
siege.  Walcher's  successor  was  a  genuine  monk, 
William  of  Carileph,  a  monastery  in  Maine.  He 
did  not  hold  the  earldom,  but  his  powers  were  ample. 
In  his  days  a  great  change  took  place,  when  the  old 
Cuthbertine  congregation  was  dispossessed,  and  Bene- 
dictine monks  were  established  at  Durham.  Up  to 
this  time  the  canons  seem  to  have  been  secular,  living 
on  their  own  estates  and  coming  to  Durham,  perhaps, 


ii6       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

in  turn.  But  under  the  direct  sanction  of  the  great 
reforming  Pope  Hildebrand,  Carileph  succeeded  in 
obtaining  license  for  the  alteration.  In  this  way  we 
get  the  origin  of  the  famous  Benedictine  Priory  of 
Durham,  whose  glory  grew  until  the  dissolution  of 
the  house  in  1539.  Soon  after  this  act,  however, 
the  bishop  fell  into  disfavour  with  William  Rufus, 
and  was  exiled  to  Normandy.  During  his  absence 
Rufus  seized  upon  the  castle,  which  underwent  its 
second  siege  a  year  or  two  later,  when  Malcolm  made 
an  inroad  into  Northumbria  and  surrounded  the  city. 
Once  more  the  fortifications,  which  had  already  with- 
stood the  murderers  of  Walcher,  proved  to  be  too 
strong  for  the  Scots.  Carileph  returned  shortly  after 
this,  and  set  to  work  to  build  that  noble  Norman 
cathedral  which  forms  as  well  a  turning-point  in  the 
history  of  Lombardic  architecture  as  the  special  glory 
of  the  north  of  England.  He  would  seem  to  have 
devoted  to  its  building  the  revenues  of  the  abbey  of 
Waltham,  which  the  Conqueror  had  made  a  special 
grant  to  Walcher  for  the  building  of  the  castle. 

Flambard  was  the  next  bishop,  and  his  episcopate 
is  a  time  of  no  little  glory  in  the  annals  of  Durham. 
He  cleared  the  crowded  space  between  castle  and 
cathedral ;  he  built  the  bridge  below  the  castle,  and 
fortified  it ;  he  gave  the  castle  a  new  line  of  defence  by 
building  a  wall  from  the  Norman  apse  of  the  cathedral 
until  it  reached  the  keep ;  he  organised  the  finances 
and  administration  of  the  bishopric.  But  what  most 
impressed  his  age  was  the  translation  of  the  shrine  of 
St.  Cuthbert  to  the  spot  which  it  has  ever  since 
occupied  at  the  east  end  of  the  church.  From  this 
moment,  whatever  may  have  been  the  prestige  of  St. 
Cuthbert,  it  increased  rapidly,  and  that  concentration 
of  north-country  pilgrims  began  which  we  see  reflected 


DURHAM   CASTLE  117 

in  the  pages  of  Reginald  of  Durham,  a  twelfth-century 
monk,  who  wrote  a  book  of  the  wondrous  deeds  of 
healing  performed  in  connection  with  the  saint.  Cer- 
tainly the  great  fortress,  the  massive  walls  of  the  city, 
and  the  majesty  of  the  growing  cathedral,  must  have 
impressed  the  visitor  in  no  ordinary  degree.  It  was  in 
Flambard's  days  that  a  young  south  countryman  called 
Laurence  came  to  Durham.  He  had  been  trained  in 
Waltham  Abbey,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  had  a  Durham 
connection.  Waltham  was  now  a  college  of  regular 
canons,  but  Laurence  desired  to  become  a  monk,  and 
that  was  why  he  came  to  the  north.  Geoffrey  Rufus, 
Flambard's  successor,  marked  the  ability  of  Laurence, 
and  made  him  his  chaplain  and  advanced  him  to  high 
position  in  the  administration  of  the  see.  From 
writings  which  he  afterwards  composed,  we  get  a 
glimpse  of  the  life  and  even  of  the  amusements  of 
the  bishop's  retinue.  There  were  not  merely  the 
offices  of  religion,  but  pastimes  such  as  Christmas 
revels  in  the  castle,  or  the  chase  of  the  wild  boar ; 
and  Laurence  knew  well  the  points  of  horse  and 
hawk.  He  describes,  too,  the  country  round  Durham 
— its  forests,  its  great  hunt  in  Weardale,  its  wolves  and 
boars,  its  fish  and  fowl,  its  silver  ore,  its  famous  breed 
of  horses,  its  corn  and  honey.  He  has  a  genuine 
enthusiasm  for  the  rich,  productive  country,  unspoiled 
as  yet  by  modern  mining  and  coke-ovens. 

But  a  sad  change  came  over  the  Durham  that 
Laurence  loved.  We  have  reached  the  period  of 
anarchy  that  followed  the  death  of  Henry  I,  in  1135, 
There  were  two  parties :  the  one  followed  Stephen, 
and  the  other  supported  the  Empress  Maud.  Bishop 
Geoffrey  took  the  side  of  Stephen,  David,  King  of 
Scotland,  naturally  upheld  his  own  niece  Maud,  but 
not  entirely  for  her  own  sake.     He  saw  in  the  divided 


ii8       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

interest  his  own  opportunity,  and  he  planned  to  win 
over  the  bishop,  or,  failing  that,  to  make  himself 
suzerain  of  the  earldom  of  Northumbria.  Terrible 
years  of  battle  and  bloodshed  followed,  in  which  the 
tide  of  success  ebbed  and  flowed.  At  one  point  it  was 
only  the  swift  occupation  of  city  and  castle  by  Stephen 
that  saved  Durham  from  siege,  if  not  from  sack.  At 
another  stage  the  Scots  encroached  to  the  Tees,  but 
left  Durham  untouched,  and  pushing  on  into  York- 
shire were  beaten  back  at  the  Battle  of  the  Standard, 
when  Archbishop  Thurstan  of  York  rallied  the  York- 
shiremen  to  defend  their  territory  under  the  sacred 
banners  of  St.  Peter,  St.  Wilfrid,  and  St.  John  of 
Beverley.  Next  year  in  Durham  Castle  a  convention 
was  signed,  which  recognised  David's  son  Henry  as 
Earl  of  Northumberland,  but  reserved  to  the  Bishop 
of  Durham  all  the  rights  of  the  patrimony  of  St. 
Cuthbert,  which  had  been  violated  in  the  last  four 
years  of  warfare.  But  this  convention  was  only  a 
breathing-space.  After  the  Battle  of  the  Standard, 
William  Cumin,  the  chancellor  of  King  David,  had 
been  for  a  time  imprisoned  in  Durham  Castle,  where 
his  gaoler  was  none  other  than  Bishop  Geoffrey,  who 
in  former  days  had  been  the  friend  and  patron  of 
Cumin.  This  Cumin  (an  ominous  name  in  Durham) 
soon  became  the  centre  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
episodes  in  Durham  history.  In  1141  the  bishop  lay 
dying  in  his  castle,  and  was  visited  by  him.  In  a 
moment,  all  the  outline  of  a  daring  plan  suggested 
itself  to  the  ambitious  imagination  of  the  visitor.  It 
was  nothing  less  than  that  Cumin,  who  was  probably  a 
deacon  only,  should  be  the  next  Bishop  of  Durham. 
But  this  meant  the  reopening  of  the  whole  question 
of  Scottish  authority,  together  with  the  rival  claims  of 
Stephen  and  Maud,  which  had  been  settled  in  Durham 


DURHAM    CASTLE  119 

Castle  two  years  before,  when  the  convention  was 
signed.  Eagerly  King  David  took  the  matter  up,  and 
when  the  bishop  died  Cumin  was  sent  to  seize  the 
temporalities  of  the  see,  which  Maud  confirmed  to 
him.  So  Cumin  took  up  his  residence  in  the  castle, 
and  sought  the  recognition  of  the  chief  men  of  the 
bishopric,  and  above  all  of  the  monks,  with  whom 
the  election  lay.  For  two  years  this  mock  bishop 
secured  himself  in  the  castle,  and,  if  he  failed  to  win 
over  the  monks  to  his  side,  he  was  able  to  impose 
upon  the  unwary  by  forged  papal  recommendations 
purporting  to  come  from  Pope  Innocent  II,  But  at 
Rome  the  true  state  of  affairs  was  known,  and  a  man- 
date was  sent  bidding  the  loyal  monks  to  make  their 
election  at  York,  as  Durham  was  in  the  hands  of 
Cumin.  They  were  able  to  elude  the  vigilance  of  the 
pseudo-bishop's  emissaries,  and  William  of  St.  Barbe, 
the  Dean  of  York,  was  elected,  and  then  at  Winchester 
consecrated  with  all  dignity  by  no  less  than  ten  prelates. 
Cumin's  rage  was  beyond  control  when  he  heard  of  his 
rival.  But  the  castle  was  his,  and  troops  apparently 
were  at  his  command,  and  he  could  overawe  the  monks 
in  the  cathedral.  War  began  between  the  true  and 
the  false  bishop,  when  William  found  that  men  were 
ready  to  flock  to  his  banner.  He  took  up  his  position 
by  the  Church  of  St.  Giles,  on  a  lonely  spot  overlook- 
ing the  city,  to  which  the  monks  contrived  to  send 
a  message  of  confidence  and  loyalty.  But  Cumin 
detected  their  envoy,  and  stormed  the  cathedral,  and 
turning  out  every  monk  of  whose  allegiance  he  was 
doubtful,  proceeded  to  silence  the  sacred  offices  and 
to  desecrate  the  building.  The  city,  too,  was  full  of 
scenes  of  horror,  where  rapine  and  murder  stalked 
unchecked.  Bishop  William  had  tried  an  unsuccessful 
assault  upon  the  castle,  and  then  fell  back,  it  would 


I20       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

seem,  because  he  was  afraid  of  being  cut  off  by  the 
really  strong  outposts  which  the  troops  of  Cumin  held 
on  the  main  approaches  to  Durham,  But  William 
was  in  communication  with  prelates  and  potentates 
outside  the  bishopric.  The  Archbishop  of  York  and 
the  Bishop  of  Carlisle  joined  him  in  a  parley  with 
Cumin,  but  to  little  purpose,  until  their  arguments 
were  reinforced  by  the  unexpected  adhesion  of  David's 
son,  Henry,  Earl  of  Northumberland.  At  last  the 
troops  of  the  earl,  joined  by  the  retainers  of  some  of  the 
greatest  barons  of  the  bishopric,  pushed  on  to  Durham, 
where  Cumin's  men  did  their  last  act  of  mischief  in 
firing  the  houses  which  nestled  for  protection  below 
the  great  walls  of  the  fortress.  Cumin  saw  himself 
unable  to  face  the  growing  opposition  to  his  indignities, 
and  finally,  when  the  Archbishop  of  York  and  the 
Bishop  of  Carlisle  accompanied  Bishop  William  into 
Durham,  Cumin  made  a  repentant  submission  to  his 
rival,  and  surrendered  the  castle,  which  had  been  held 
by  him  for  nearly  three  years. 

No  one  took  a  more  anxious  interest  in  the  fate 
of  castle  and  cathedral  in  those  days  of  blasphemy 
and  rebuke  than  Laurence  the  monk.  The  one 
benefit  of  that  stormy  usurpation  to  ourselves  is  the 
fact  that  Laurence  has  left  us  some  description  of 
Durham  as  it  had  been  under  Bishops  Flambard  and 
Geoffrey,  and  Durham  as  it  was  when  Cumin  turned 
it  into  a  den  of  thieves.  He,  no  doubt,  was  one  of 
those  whom  Cumin  drove  out  of  the  cathedral,  and 
his  own  sufferings  added  pathos  to  the  account  which 
he  wrote  of  his  old  home  and  surroundings.  His 
poem  takes  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  himself 
and  two  friends,  Peter  and  Philip,  to  whom  he  details 
one  spring  morning,  after  his  return  to  Durham,  the 
anarchy  of  the  reign  in  general,  and  in  particular  the 


DURHAM    CASTLE  121 


recent   misery  of  Durham.      From   the    lamentations 
of  Laurence,  however,  we  may  pass  to  his  incidental 
picture  of  the  castle  as  he  knew  it  before  leaving  it 
at  Bishop  Geoffrey's  death.     He  gives  a  general  sketch 
of  the  peninsula,  its  encircling  wall,  its  three  gates,  its 
lofty  position,  its  impregnable  character,  and  its  pre- 
cipitous river  banks.     Then,  in  heavy  and  often  turgid 
monkish  Latin  verse,  he  describes  his  old  home  into 
which  Cumin  intruded  himself.     The  general  scheme, 
as  the  building  had  been   built  by  Waltheof  and  to 
some    extent    altered    by    Flambard's  wall,   it    is    not 
difficult  to  follow,  but  the  details  are  sometimes  per- 
plexing.    Laurence  is  writing  verse,  and  the  exigence 
of  metre  frequently  leads  him  to  choose  a  word  which 
is  obscure,  and  sometimes  ambiguous.     Some  passages 
will  always  remain  for  archaeologists  to  dispute  with 
authorities  on  mediaeval  verse.     An  attempt  may  be 
made   to  give  in  verse   some  idea  of  what  Laurence 
says,  but  those  who  wish  to  fix  his  meaning  on  details 
must  have  recourse  to  the  poem  itself:  ^ — 
"  Upon  the  motte  the  keep  sits  like  a  queen, 
With  threatening  aspect  reckons  all  her  own. 
Grim  from  the  gate  below,  straight  up  the  mound, 
A  wall  makes  for  this  donjon's  pleasant  site. 
Whilst  to  the  upper  air  the  keep  ascends, 
Massive  within,  without  in  brave  array. 
Within,  a  base  three  cubits  thick  doth  rise, 
A  base  compact  of  solid  earth  beat  hard  ; 
Above  this  looms  the  fortress  higher  still, 
Conspicuous  and  comely  in  its  show. 
'Tis  seen  to  rest  on  twice  two  pillars  here. 
Each  firm-knit  angle  boasts  a  pillar  too, 
Whilst  at  the  sides  connecting  walls  unite. 
And  each  one  ends  in  frowning  curtain  wall. 
Then  from  the  building  to  the  battlement 
A  stair  gives  easy  access  by  its  steps, 
And  thus  arriving  at  the  top  the  way 

^  Edited  by  Dr.  Raine  for  the  Surtees  Society,  1858,  vol.  Ixx. 


122       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF  YORK 

Gives  frequent  access  to  the  summit  there. 
The  keep  itself  presents  a  rounded  form  : 
Position,  art,  conspire  to  give  it  grace. 
Hence  to  the  castle  downward  looks  a  bridge 
Affording  quick  return  both  up  and  down, 
Wide  as  it  is,  descending  to  the  base 
With  narrow  steps,  not  headlong  in  its  flight. 
Beside  it  from  the  keep  a  wall  runs  down 
And  turns  its  face  toward  the  setting  sun, 
Then  bending  back  right  up  the  air-swept  bank 
Comprises  in  its  course  an  area  large, 
Until  at  last  it  feels  the  northern  blast 
Strong  as  before,  and  gains  the  keep  once  more. 

The  space  surrounded  by  this  lofty  wall. 
By  no  means  void,  of  buildings  holds  a  store ; 
Two  mighty  palaces,  with  many  a  vault  beneath, 
Attest  the  skill  of  their  artificers. 
Here,  too,  there  gleams  on  columns  six  upreared 
The  chapel,  not  too  large  but  beautiful. 
Here  room  joins  room,  and  house  joins  house, 
For  everything  and  every  one  its  use. 
Here  vestments,  sacred  vessels,  polished  arms 
Arrest  the  eye.     Here  money,  meat,  and  bread 
Are  stored — fruit,  wine,  and  beer ;  whilst  purest  flour 
Has  its  own  place,  and  yet  in  all  the  array 
Of  clustered  buildings  none  is  idle  here. 
The  castle's  inner  court  unoccupied 
Contains  a  well  of  water  always  full. 

There  is  a  gate  of  lofty  height  so  strong 
That  few,  nay  women  weak,  could  hold  it  safe. 
In  front  a  bridge  is  laid  across  a  moat 
And  stretches  widely  to  the  other  side. 
Till  safely  flanked  with  walls  it  meets  the  green 
Where  joyous  youth  so  often  held  its  sports. 
The  castle  wall  wards  off  the  northern  blast 
So  does  the  keep  upon  the  lofty  mound  ; 
Another  wall  runs  from  the  keep  full  south 
Protracted  to  the  church's  eastern  bound." 

The  keep  needs  little  explanation.  It  was  first  built, 
perhaps,  by  the  fugitives  mentioned  above,  in  1069. 
It   was   round,   and   rested   upon   pillars,   though   the 


DURHAM    CASTLE  123 

character  of  the  base  is  obscure,  and  may  be  explained 
by  some  concrete  foundation.  From  the  corners  of 
the  keep  curtain  walls  descend,  one  of  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  built  by  Flambard,  and  is  probably 
the  one  specially  named  in  the  concluding  two  lines. 
Down  below  is  the  castle  proper,  which  connects  by  a 
series  of  steps  with  the  keep.  Another  of  the  walls 
connecting  with  the  angles  of  the  keep  sweeps  round 
towards  the  west,  and  bends  back  on  the  southern  side 
until  it  reaches  the  keep  again.  This  wide  expanse 
encloses  the  main  buildings — two  vast  square  Norman 
towers,  one  of  them  containing  the  Norman  chapel 
(no  hall  is  mentioned),  the  other,  perhaps  on  the  west, 
comprising  the  chief  store-rooms.  Between  these  is  a 
vacant  space  with  a  well,  and  that  has  been  recently 
discovered.  Two  gates  are  mentioned — the  one  on 
the  north  side  with  which  the  big  wall  from  the  keep 
connects ;  the  other  where  its  modern  representative 
still  stands,  between  the  cathedral  and  the  castle.  The 
northern  gate  was  finally  destroyed  in  1820.  The 
Palace  Green  (Place-Green  is  the  correct  form),  to 
which  the  drawbridge  gives  access,  had  been  cleared 
by  Flambard,  and  is  still  the  chosen  playground 
of  Durham  children.  The  garrison  was,  almost 
obviously,  quartered  in  the  keep,  and  here  the  dun- 
geons were  to  be  found.  Their  locality  is  further 
fixed  by  the  book  of  Reginald  the  Monk,  written  in 
Pudsey's  time,  to  which  some  reference  has  already 
been  made.  He  describes  the  imprisonment  of  a 
certain  malefactor  within  the  castle  in  such  terms 
that  the  only  possible  identification  is  clearly  in- 
dicated. Incidentally  Reginald  also  mentions  not 
merely  the  prison  in  the  keep,  but  the  lofty  battle- 
ments with  their  warders,  the  sentinel  on  duty  at  the 
barbican,  the  porter  sitting  before  the  doorway,   the 


124       EPISCOPAL   PALACES  OF  YORK 

massive  entrance  gates  with  their  heavy  bar,  and  the 
mint  of  the  bishop.  This  last  was  a  special  privilege 
bestowed  upon  Bishop  Geoffrey  as  a  reward  for  his 
allegiance  to  King  Stephen. 

But  the  reference  to  Reginald  is  a  slight  anticipa- 
tion. We  must  return  to  Laurence.  When  William 
of  St.  Barbe  died  in  1153,  Laurence  had  already  been 
elected  Prior  of  Durham,  and  we  may  well  believe 
that  no  other  monk  in  the  house  was  a  possible  rival. 
The  prior  and  his  monks  probably  desired  a  strong 
bishop,  and  their  choice  fell  upon  Hugh  Pudsey,  a 
nephew  of  the  late  king,  and  therefore  cousin  of 
Henry  H.  The  fidelity  of  Durham  to  the  House  of 
Stephen  made  the  election  natural,  but  great  opposi- 
tion was  manifested,  and  the  famous  St.  Bernard  him- 
self was  brought  into  the  dispute.  Pudsey,  however, 
was  duly  consecrated,  and  entered  upon  that  long 
tenure  of  office  which  left  an  ineffaceable  mark  upon 
Durham,  and  upon  the  development  of  what  we  must 
now  begin  to  call  the  palatinate  power  of  the  bishop. 
In  the  very  early  days  of  his  episcopate  a  grave  disaster 
befell  the  castle,  in  a  conflagration  which  spread  from 
the  city  below  and  gutted  the  north  side,  and  probably 
the  west  of  the  fortress.  The  calamity  appears  to 
have  been  predicted  by  St.  Godric,  the  hermit  of 
Finchale,  whose  cell  was  frequently  visited  by  those 
who  desired  to  consult  the  saint,  and  even  by  Bishop 
William  himself.  No  doubt  the  fire  described  by 
Reginald  is  the  same.  He  tells  us  how  fire  was 
always  dreaded  at  Durham,  as  indeed  it  still  is  to- 
day. On  this  occasion  the  flames  ravaged  the  buildings 
(no  doubt  erected  since  Cumin's  destruction  of  the 
suburbs)  on  the  north  side  of  the  peninsula,  whilst  a 
strong  north  wind  drove  the  sparks  right  over  the 
castle,  despite  the  frantic  efforts  made  to  prevent  damage 


DURHAM   CASTLE  125 

by  them.  Some  of  the  most  important  parts  of  the 
building  were  thus  destroyed,  including  probably  the 
Norman  hall  of  Waltheof,  and  all  the  store-rooms  and 
chambers  to  which  Laurence  makes  such  detailed 
reference.  The  chapel  was  unharmed,  and  the  keep 
was  spared,  thanks  to  the  banner  of  St.  Cuthbert, 
Reginald  tells  us,  which  was  borne  across  from  the 
cathedral  by  the  monks  and  suspended  from  a  spear. 
The  sadly  injured  castle  apparently  bore  the  signs  of 
its  desolation  for  many  a  long  day. 

A  further  loss  of  prestige  now  occurred.  The 
reign  of  Henry  II.  witnessed  a  vigorous  attempt  of 
the  King  of  England  to  push  up  the  frontiers  of 
his  realm  to  the  Tweed.  His  grasp  of  the  northern 
counties  was  at  first  firmly  maintained,  and  his  recog- 
nition of  the  bishop's  rights  and  authorities  was  ample. 
But  in  1 173  came  the  rebellion  of  Prince  Henry,  who 
fixed  his  eyes  upon  the  northern  extremity  of  the  king's 
wide  dominions  as  a  possible  bribe  to  the  King  of  Scot- 
land for  his  co-operation  in  the  prince's  scheme.  In  this 
way  all  the  old  ambitions  of  David  to  achieve  an  effective 
suzerainty  over  Northumbria  were  revived,  and  William 
the  Lion  of  Scotland  lent  a  ready  ear  to  the  rebel  prince. 
It  was  Pudsey's  opportunity  to  show  himself  valiant  for 
the  king,  but  he  made  the  fatal  step  of  declaring  his 
neutrality,  and  offered  no  protest  or  opposition  to  the 
advance  of  William  into  Northumberland  : 

"  Then  says  King  William  :  '  Hear,  my  knights. 
Throughout  Northumberland  I  will  take  my  way  : 
There  is  no  one  to  oppose  us  ;  whom  should  we  then  fear  ? 
The  Bishop  of  Durham  (behold  his  messenger) 
Informs  me  by  his  letters  he  wishes  to  remain  at  peace. 
Neither  from  him  nor  his  forces  we  shall  have  disturbance,'"^ 

For  this  passive  part  in  the  rebellion  Bishop  Pudsey 

^  From  the  Chronicle  of  Jordan  Fantosme,  11.  531-36.    Surtees  Societ}-, 
vol,  ii.  p.  27. 


126       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

had  to  pay  an  ignominious  penalty  in  the  surrender  of 
his  three  great  castles,  Norham,  Durham,  and  North- 
allerton. The  people  of  Durham  had  to  witness  the 
march  in  of  a  royal  garrison,  who  took  possession  of 
Durham  Castle,  which  seems  at  this  period  to  be  called 
consistently  the  Tower  of  Durham,  a  title  which  bears 
out  the  destruction  caused  by  the  fire  some  twenty 
years  previously.  But  Pudsey  got  the  castle  back 
again  during  the  next  few  years,  yet  only  to  lose  it 
once  more  in  1 1 8 1 ,  when  he  angered  the  king  over 
some  demand  made.  It  is  to  this  period  of  recovery 
that  we  may,  with  great  probability,  refer  the  restora- 
tion of  Durham  Castle.  Elaborate  building  was  under- 
taken by  the  prelate,  which  more  than  restored  its 
early  glory.  Thirty  years  of  comparative  peace  had 
brought  the  patrimony  of  St.  Cuthbert  to  a  pitch  of 
prosperity  which  it  had  never  yet  known.  The  ravages 
of  Cumin  and  the  more  distant  harrying  of  Odo  were 
forgotten  at  last,  and  men  rejoiced  in  the  dignity  and 
prestige  that  this  able  bishop  had  brought  to  the 
bishopric.  It  is,  indeed,  probable  that  this  name 
"bishopric"  was  now  first  associated  ^^r  ^;<:^^//^«f^  with 
the  various  members  of  the  territory  of  St.  Cuthbert 
in  Northumberland,  Durham,  and  Yorkshire,  a  name 
which  the  district  retained  until  a  period  within  living 
memory.  What  caught  the  imagination  in  Pudsey's 
time  is  the  considerable  accession  to  the  bishop's  power, 
contributed  by  the  special  circumstances  of  the  day. 
Pudsey  had  long  desired  to  go  on  crusade  to  the  East, 
and  had  made  large  collections  for  the  purpose.  The 
design  was  stimulated  by  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  in  1 1 87. 
When  Richard  succeeded  to  the  crown  in  11 89,  the 
king  conceived  that  plan  of  unprecedented  magni- 
ficence which  is  associated  with  his  name.  He  knew 
Pudsey's  wish,  and  soon  began  to  negotiate  with  him. 


DURHAM   CASTLE  127 

as  he  did  with  other  great  lords,  for  the  sale  and 
transfer  of  lands  and  rights  which  might  be  turned  into 
money.  To  the  south  of  Durham  lay  the  wapentake 
and  manor  of  Sadberge,  which  had  never  been  merged 
in  the  patrimony  of  St.  Cuthbert.  King  Richard, 
therefore,  proposed  to  make  over  to  the  bishop  for 
a  money  consideration  the  earldom  of  Northumbria, 
which  had  of  late  been  so  greatly  coveted  by  Scotland, 
and  to  round  off  the  possessions  of  St.  Cuthbert  by  the 
addition  of  Sadberge.  Thus,  once  more,  as  in  the  days 
of  Walcher,  Durham  became  the  seat  of  the  bishop's 
double  power,  religious  and  secular,  and  Pudsey  ruled 
supreme  from  the  Tees  to  the  Tweed,  though  for  a 
brief  period  only,  as  further  difficulties  with  the  king 
soon  resulted  in  the  loss  of  his  newly-acquired  dignities. 
It  is  no  improbable  suggestion  that  the  restoration  of 
the  castle  is  connected  with  the  added  prestige  of  Pud- 
sey at  the  beginning  of  Richard's  reign.  At  all  events, 
to  some  such  time  we  refer  the  building  of  the  door- 
way which  led  into  a  Norman  hall  cut  up  into  various 
rooms  in  later  days.  This  doorway  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  specimens  of  late  Norman  work  in 
England.  It  displays  three  concentric  arches,  which 
are  richly  moulded,  and  exhibit  a  striking  contrast  to 
the  simple  decoration  of  the  capitals  in  the  chapel, 
which  are  a  century  older.  Of  the  three  arches,  the 
outer  one  has  a  number  of  panels  octagonal  in  shape, 
and  very  deeply  sunk ;  the  second  may  be  described 
in  heraldic  language  as  billety ;  whilst  the  last  has 
square  panels.  Both  the  second  and  the  third  are 
decorated  with  beading.  The  tympanum  so  formed 
must  have  had  at  one  time  a  hood  of  some  kind  to 
cover  it,  for  it  has  been  successfully  shielded  from  the 
weather.  The  shafts  at  the  side  had  no  such  protec- 
tion, and  have  been  much  injured,  and  indicate  a  good 


128       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

deal  of  repair,  which  has  spoiled  the  rose  and  lozenge 
mouldings  which  decorated  the  spaces  between  the 
shafts.  We  must  imagine  a  large  double  staircase  (of 
which  the  footing  has  been  recovered)  leading  from 
the  courtyard  to  this  doorway,  so  giving  access  to 
Pudsey's  hall.  The  splendid  preservation  of  this  rich 
doorway  is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  it  was  closed  at 
one  time,  and  continued  so  to  be  until  Bishop  Barring- 
ton  opened  it  out — discovered  it  in  fact — at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century.  Whose  ill-taste  hid 
up  Pudsey's  work  we  do  not  certainly  know,  but  it 
must  have  been  done  after  the  gallery  of  Bishop 
Tunstall  was  built  in  the  sixteenth  century,  for  he 
left  a  large  window  to  light  up  the  beauties  of  the 
doorway.  Not  improbably  Bishop  Crewe  is  the  cul- 
prit. It  may  be  added  that  Pudsey  built  nobly  else- 
where in  the  diocese,  and  that  in  almost  every  case 
structural  defects  manifested  themselves,  so  that  the 
Galilee  in  the  cathedral  and  the  north  side  of  the 
castle  have  caused  much  trouble  and  expense  in  later 
days.  We  are  able  to  specify  the  individual  on  whom 
the  blame  rests.  Richard  the  Engineer,  whose  name  has 
come  down  to  us  in  more  than  one  document,  was  a 
magnificent  architect  but  an  inferior  engineer,  and  it 
is  no  doubt  due  to  his  imperfect  skill  that  such  grave 
structural  errors  were  committed  in  Pudsey's  buildings. 
If  we  try  to  restore  in  imagination  the  general  character 
of  Pudsey's  work  in  the  castle,  we  must  picture  a  large 
Norman  hall  to  which  his  doorway  gave  entrance. 
On  the  northern  side  were  the  ordinary  rounded 
windows,  some  of  them  enlarged  in  a  much  later 
century,  when  the  hall  has  been  cut  up  into  various 
rooms.  Above  it  was  a  second  hall,  reached  by  a 
staircase  still  existing,  perhaps  divided  from  it,  but 
more  probably  looking  into  it  as  in  the  keep  at  New- 


DURHAM    CASTLE  129 

castle.  This  upper  story  was  known  as  the  Constable's 
Hall,  and  here  dwelt  the  constable,  who  was  one  of  the 
chief  officers  of  the  palatinate.  Some  of  its  decora- 
tion still  survives,  though  it  has  been  badly  treated  in 
modern  times. 

With  Pudsey  the  twelfth  century  nearly  ran  out, 
and  a  full  hundred  years  followed,  which  left  little  or 
no  permanent  mark  upon  the  castle.  Yet  more  than 
one  royal  visitor  was  entertained  here :  King  John 
twice  over  in  12 16,  when  he  came  to  deal  with  the 
recalcitrant  barons  of  the  north  ;  King  Henry  in  1255  ; 
and  Alexander  of  Scotland  in  1272.  There  were 
anxious  passages  on  several  occasions  between  the 
bishops  and  the  great  barons,  like  the  Balliols  of 
Barnard  Castle,  the  Nevilles  of  Raby,  and  others 
as  well,  who  strove  in  those  long  years  of  Henry's  mis- 
rule to  shake  themselves  free  in  one  way  and  another 
from  the  bishop's  authority.  It  may  serve  to  show 
how  deeply  Flambard  and  Pudsey  had  driven  the 
foundation  on  which  the  great  authority  of  the 
mediaeval  Bishop  of  Durham  now  rested,  that  on  the 
whole  these  important  barons  failed  to  free  themselves 
of  the  bishop's  control.  His  disputes  with  them, 
however  acrimonious,  ended  in  his  favour,  and  were 
allowed  by  the  king  without  question.  The  sad  lack 
of  documents,  which  the  historian  of  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  century  Durham  has  to  lament,  prevents  us 
from  being  able  to  trace  the  development  and  organisa- 
tion of  the  bishop's  power,  but  it  is  quite  clear  that  he 
had  since  Walcher's  time  come  to  hold  over  the 
bishopric  an  autocratic  sway  like  that  of  a  king. 
And  so  all  his  quarrels  with  barons  and  others  re- 
semble the  feuds  between  the  king  and  his  barons  in 
the  larger  realm  outside,  with  this  difference,  that  the 
Bishop  of  Durham  was  able  to  dictate  terms,  whilst 

I 


130       EPISCOPAL    PALACES   OF  YORK 

the  barons  of  England  imposed  their  demands  upon 
King  John  and  King  Henry. 

All  this  development  of"  control  over  his  dominions 
meant  the  concentration  of  an  enormous  amount  of  busi- 
ness in  and  around  Durham  Castle,  The  precincts  must 
have  held  not  merely  the  residence  of  a  large  staff  of 
officials  who  administered  the  palatinate  jurisdiction, 
but  as  well  a  number  of  offices  in  which  law  was  adminis- 
tered, finance  controlled,  military  and  naval  organisation 
directed.  The  result  of  this  centralisation  of  mani- 
fold departments  at  Durham  was  natural  enough,  in 
that  the  bishop  resided  less  and  less  at  the  castle  save 
on  occasions  of  state,  so  to  speak,  when  some  great 
visitor  was  received  there,  or  when  a  banquet  v/as  given, 
or  when  invasion  was  threatened.  Probably  another 
reason  for  the  bishop's  preference  for  his  castle  at 
Stockton,  or  his  manors  in  Bishop  Middleham,  Dar- 
lington, and  elsewhere,  is  to  be  found  in  the  growing 
importance  of  the  Prior  of  Durham.  The  lands  of  the 
prior,  as  opposed  to  the  lands  of  the  bishop,  had  first 
been  divided  by  Carileph.  Poor  enough  at  the  end  of 
the  eleventh  century,  the  monastery  lands  had  increased 
in  value  and  in  extent  in  the  meantime,  and  with  them 
the  prestige  of  the  prior.  But  Durham  was  not  large 
enough  for  two  kings  to  reign  within  her,  and  thus 
the  bishop  kept  away  from  possible  conflict  and 
jealousy  between  monastery  and  castle,  save  when 
special  circumstances  brought  into  unquestioned  pro- 
minence his  own  authority  and  dignity.  One  survival 
from  the  wreck  of  mediaeval  documents  still  exists  in 
the  shape  of  Bishop  Kellaw's  magnificent  register  of 
the  palatinate,  which  was  probably  drawn  up  within 
the  castle,  and  is  our  chief  means  of  information  as  to 
the  varied  business  of  the  bishop's  dominions.  From 
it  we  are  able  to  conjecture  the  general  character  of 


DURHAM    CASTLE  131 

the  somewhat  earlier  days,  when  this  complexity  of" 
affairs  was  growing  up. 

Before  the  thirteenth  century  ended  a  new  chapter 
opened  in  the  history  of  the  castle.  The  days  of 
internal  disputes  between  bishop  and  barons  and 
bishop  and  monastery  were,  generally  speaking,  a 
time  of  peace,  so  far  as  external  troubles  were  con- 
cerned. During  the  reigns  of  the  first  three  Edwards 
troubles  with  Scotland  constitute  a  large  portion  of 
general  English  history,  and  the  Palatinate  of  Durham 
bore  the  brunt  of  those  troubles.  The  great  storm  fell 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  when  few  years  were  with- 
out a  record  of  raid,  but  some  preliminary  showers 
descended  as  early  as  1277,  when  the  Scots  began  to 
encroach.  From  this  point  the  bishop's  castles  came 
into  prominence,  and  Durham  must  have  changed  its 
aspect  from  a  peaceful  hive  of  business  to  a  garrison 
centre,  from  which  troops  were  pushed  up  to  do  service 
within  the  bishopric.  During  all  these  Scottish  troubles 
the  Bishop  of  Durham  was  treated  by  the  English  king 
as  responsible  for  the  peace  of  the  Borders,  and  we  must 
suppose  that,  in  earlier  documents  now  lost,  this  duty 
and  service  had  been  recognised  and  accepted. 

Foremost  of  the  prelates  at  this  time  was  Antony 
Bek,  more  soldier  than  bishop,  who  took  the  field 
himself  against  the  Scots  when  his  more  peaceful 
measures  failed  to  secure  the  match  he  desired  between 
Prince  Edward  and  Margaret,  the  child-queen  of  the 
Scots.  Had  this  match  been  carried  out  the  whole 
history  of  the  Borders  might  have  been  different,  but 
it  was  reserved  for  a  later  Bishop  of  Durham  to  suc- 
ceed where  Bek  failed,  and  to  negotiate  that  marriage 
of  another  Margaret,  which  ultimately  led  to  the  union 
of  the  crowns  of  England  and  Scotland.  The  unhappy 
years  of  interregnum  that  followed  the  death  of  the 


132       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

little  Margaret  proved  the  opportunity  of  Edward  of 
England,  who  claimed  the  kingdom  of  Scotland  in 
1296.  It  was  in  this  personal  visit  to  Scotland  that 
Edward  came  to  Durham,  and  it  is  very  tempting  to 
connect  with  the  king's  presence  at  the  castle  the 
inauguration  of  the  large  hall,  which  is  still  its  chief 
glory.  Documentary  evidence  is  wanting,  but  archi- 
tectural testimony  fits  in  very  well  with  the  date  named. 
The  truncated  window  on  the  western  side,  for  in- 
stance, is  of  thirteenth-century  date,  and  that  by  itself  is 
enough  to  bring  back  the  building  to  the  time  of  Bek, 
and  to  refer  it  to  him  instead  of  Hatfield,  to  whom  it 
has  often  been  ascribed.  With  the  exception  of  the 
window  referred  to,  the  internal  fittings  of  the  hall 
have  been  greatly  altered  and  adapted,  and,  as  we  shall 
see,  the  length  of  the  room  was  shortened  by  Fox 
about  1499.  The  original  dimensions  were:  height, 
45  feet,  length  132,  breadth  36.  Underneath  it  we 
may  still  see  the  original  oak  beams,  and  the  arches  on 
which  it  rests.  The  latter  are  of  earlier  date,  and 
belong,  no  doubt,  to  Pudsey's  restoration,  or  possibly 
to  the  first  work  of  Waltheof.  But  despite  all  the 
liberties  taken  with  it  at  different  times,  the  hall 
remains  as  probably  the  finest  English  hall  of  that 
particular  period.  Its  earliest  use  would  be  for  those 
occasions  of  ceremony  which  Bek,  "  of  that  state  and 
greatness  as  never  any  bishop  was,  Wolsey  excepted," 
knew  well  how  to  make  the  most  of,  as  when  King  Ed- 
ward came  to  Durham,  or  Balliols  or  Nevilles  did  their 
homage  on  bended  knee.  That  such  functions  were 
held  here  seems  to  be  indicated  by  one  chronicler,  who 
speaks  of  two  thrones  of  royal  dignity,  one  at  either 
end  of  the  hall,  though  it  is  a  little  difficult  to  see 
what  their  relation  may  have  been.^ 

^  The  one,  perhaps,  was  for  secuhu  state  and  the  other  for  ecclesiastical. 


DURHAM   CASTLE  133 


The  fourteenth  century  wore  on  with  gathering 
gloom.  Almost  every  year  rumours  of  Scottish  in- 
vasion were  rife,  and  every  officer  in  the  castle  was 
thrown  into  a  state  of  deep  anxiety.  Messengers 
arrived  from  the  king  with  urgent  demands — now 
the  bishop  was  to  remain  within  the  palatinate  "  as 
a  brazen  wall  against  the  Scots "  ;  now  he  was  to 
lend  his  sovereign  money ;  now  he  was  to  levy  men 
and  to  march ;  now  he  was  bidden  to  direct  the 
offering  of  prayers  for  the  army's  success.  At  this 
time  there  was  no  continuous  garrison  kept  within 
the  castle.  Durham  was  a  small  city,  and  the  castle 
could  not  house  a  large  number  of  soldiers.  There 
was,  however,  a  carefully  regulated  service  of  castle- 
ward,  and  in  connection  with  this  some  of  the  bishop's 
tenants  concerned  had  to  come  up  to  Durham  and 
serve  during  so  many  days.  They  held  houses  near 
the  Bailey,  and  the  condition  stipulated  in  the  lease 
set  out  their  obligation  of  personal  service.  Various 
sections  of  the  town  wall  were  under  the  special  care 
and  maintenance  of  certain  tenants.  Such  duty  must 
have  been  onerous  enough  in  the  days  of  which  we 
speak.  In  13 12  Bruce  dashed  with  his  mobile  forces 
through  the  bishopric,  and  is  even  said  to  have  burnt 
the  city  itself,  though  this  more  probably  means  the 
houses  outside  the  walls.  The  castle  had  kept  Cumin 
secure  nearly  two  hundred  years  before,  and  it  is  not 
likely  that  the  warlike  Bek  suffered  its  defences  to 
deteriorate.  But  the  Scots,  victorious  at  Bannockburn 
in  1 3 14,  were  soon  in  the  north  again,  and  in  131 6 
they  made  a  foray  near  Durham,  and  wreaked  their 
will  on  the  prior's  beautiful  refugium  at  Beaurepaire,  but 
they  did  not  attack  the  city  only  three  miles  distant. 
How  far  they  had  forced  themselves  into  the  bishopric 
as  a  perpetual  menace  was  seen  in  1323,  and  again  in 


134       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF    YORK 

1325  and  1326,  when  royal  orders  came  to  the  bishop 
to  provision  his  castles,  Durham  being  named  par- 
ticularly. 

Edward  III,  inherited  the  legacy  of  the  northern 
warfare  which  had  descended  to  him  from  his  father 
and  grandfather.  But  where  the  second  Edward  failed 
his  son  succeeded.  Just  before  the  battle  of  Halidon 
Hill,  in  1333,  where  the  tide  of  war  turned  in  favour 
of  the  English,  an  interesting  Durham  episode  took 
place.  Edward  was  in  Durham,  where  Prior  de 
Couton  entertained  him  instead  of  Bishop  Beaumont, 
who  was  probably  away  from  Durham.  Queen  Philippa, 
a  frequent  companion  of  her  husband  during  his  cam- 
paigns, arrived  within  a  few  days  at  the  abbey,  not 
doubting  her  welcome,  and  took  supper  with  the  king. 
But  she  did  not  know  the  Durham  custom,  and  when 
she  sought  the  king's  chamber,  her  presence  within  the 
monastery  was  judged  to  be  a  grave  violation  of  rule. 
Some  monk  plucked  up  courage  to  tell  the  king,  who 
counselled  his  wife  to  rise  and  seek  some  other  lodging 
for  the  night.  Unwilling  to  anger  St.  Cuthbert,  she 
threw  a  cloak  over  her  shoulders  and  hurried  off 
through  the  abbey  gate,  and  passing  along  the  Bailey 
and  Lyegate,  soon  made  her  way  to  the  castle,  where 
we  may  hope  the  constable  gave  her  a  better  reception. 
Within  three  months  of  this  visit  Edward  won  the 
battle  of  Halidon  Hill,  and  so  began  to  retrieve  past 
disasters.  How  far  bishopric  musters  took  part  we 
do  not  know,  but  some  years  later,  in  1346,  Durham 
men  who  held  the  centre  gave  a  good  account  of  them- 
selves at  Neville's  Cross,  just  outside  the  city.  Intense 
local  interest  was  naturally  taken  in  what  is  sometimes 
called  the  Battle  of  Durham,  and  the  tomb  of  the 
bishopric  baron,  Ralph  Neville,  who  won  the  day,  is  still 
to  be  seen  in  Durham  Cathedral.     The  great  event  in 


DURHAM   CASTLE  135 

the  battle  was  the  capture  of  David  Bruce,  the  King  of 
Scotland,  who  in  all  probability  was  first  taken  to  the 
castle  before  being  lodged  at  Ogle.  The  same  year 
had  been  signalised  by  the  victory  of  Cre9y  two  months 
earlier,  and  the  double  event  brought  more  glory  to 
England  than  any  previous  record  of  arms. 

Bright  visions  were  conjured  up  in  the  months  that 
followed,  but  they  soon  faded  away  before  the  terrible 
gloom  which  the  Black  Death  brought  in  its  train. 
Durham  records  give  us  a  very  detailed  account  of  the 
plague  and  its  effect.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
the  whole  palatinate  was  thrown  into  an  almost  hopeless 
state  of  disorganisation.  Some  mention  has  been  made 
of  the  bishop's  stewards  and  others  v/ho  lived  in  or 
near  the  castle  and  administered  the  episcopal  lands. 
They  had  to  face  a  state  of  things  which  is  without 
parallel  in  the  history  of  Durham.  The  peasants  had 
died  off  in  hundreds,  and  others  in  sheer  misery  fled 
from  the  desolated  lands,  which  went  without  tillage 
during  the  awful  visitation.  Some  showed  a  spirit  of 
insubordination,  and  refused  the  services  that  they  owed, 
and  were  brought  to  Durham  and  thrown  into  prison 
within  the  castle  until  they  should  come  to  their  senses. 
The  generally  submissive  spirit  of  the  peasantry  changed 
from  this  point,  and  the  duties  of  the  bishop's  officers 
became  proportionately  onerous  in  dealing  with  men 
who  were  pushing  out  of  serfdom  into  they  scarcely 
knew  what,  displaying  in  the  process  an  increasing 
ill-will  and  reluctance  towards  bailiffs  and  others. 

The  Bishop  of  Durham  during  the  dark  days  was 
Hatfield,  whose  throne  in  the  cathedral  is  the  throne 
of  a  king,  and  is  symbolic  of  the  massive  power  of  the 
palatinate  at  that  time.  He  was  not  much  at  Durham, 
yet  he  left  his  mark  upon  the  castle,  where  he  "  re- 
newed the  buildings  which  had  perished   or   decayed 


136       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

through  lapse  of  time,  and  he  built  afresh  the  bishop's 
hall,  and  the  constable's  hall,  along  with  other  build- 
ings in  this  same  castle."  Such  is  the  ambiguous 
record,  but  it  receives  a  very  plausible  explanation  if 
we  understand  the  "  bishop's  hall "  to  mean  not  Bek's 
great  hall,  which  was  scarcely  a  century  old  (though 
Hatfield  probably  altered  some  of  the  windows  in  it), 
but  the  hall  of  Pudsey,  to  which  the  twelfth-century 
doorway  described  above  gave  access.  No  doubt  that 
older  building  needed  repair  along  with  the  constable's 
hall  above  it,  and  needed  it  because  Pudsey's  engineer 
was  at  fault.  But  Hatfield  did  another  piece  of  works 
at  the  castle.  He  replaced  the  keep  by  a  more  ample 
structure,  which  was  used  for  a  hundred  years  until  the 
time  of  Bishop  Fox,  and  then  fell  slowly  and  surely 
into  decay,  until  at  last  it  became  a  menace  to  the 
houses  below.  Possibly  Hatfield's  keep  may  have 
been  adapted  to  hold  a  garrison  of  soldiers.  In  his 
episcopate  a  serious  theft  occurred  at  the  castle,  when 
in  1369  a  sum  of  no  less  than  ;^2500  (an  enormous 
amount  in  those  days)  was  stolen  out  of  the  treasury 
of  the  bishop.  It  is  tempting  to  connect  the  robbery 
with  a  large  treasure-chest,  which  is  still  an  object  of 
curiosity  within  the  building,  and  exhibits  obvious  signs 
of  rough  usage.  Bound  with  hide  and  stout  iron,  it 
must  have  resisted  the  efforts  exerted,  and,  as  we  can 
still  see,  only  yielded  its  contents  after  saw  and  hatchet 
and  brute  force  had  been  employed.  Thirteen  years 
afterwards  the  unnamed  culprit  was  forgiven.  Bishop 
Hatfield  died  in  1382.  A  few  years  later,  when  Bishop 
Skirlaw  of  Bath  and  Wells  was  translated  to  Durham, 
a  survey  of  the  bishopric  was  made,  and  a  valuable 
piece  of  evidence  for  our  knowledge  of  the  castle 
precincts  is  thus  made  available.  It  tells  us  that  the 
officials  of  the  chancery  and  of  the  exchequer  had  their 


DURHAM    CASTLE  137 

dwelling-houses  outside  the  castle  proper,  and  on  the 
west  side  of  Palace  Green.  Close  by  them  was  the 
hall  of  justice.  There  were  also  a  granary,  a  large 
barn,  and  other  rooms  as  well,  and  these  stood  in  front 
of  the  old  gaol,  which  was  on  the  same  western  side. 
Opposite  them,  on  the  east  side  of  the  green,  were  the 
mint  and  other  offices,  which  apparently  had  been  turned 
into  dwelling-houses  for  the  chancellor,  the  constable, 
and  the  mint-master.  Skirlaw  introduced  an  important 
change  when  he  began  to  build  afresh  the  north  gate 
of  the  castle,  to  which  with  its  long  annexes  he  trans- 
ferred the  gaol.  Bishop  Langley,  his  successor,  seems 
to  have  completed  the  work  that  Skirlaw  began,  though 
he  has  generally  had  the  credit  of  building  the  whole 
north  gate.  A  building  for  the  exchequer  court, 
separate  from  the  single  court  of  justice,  was  to 
come  rather  later. 

We  now  pass  into  the  fifteenth  century.  It  can- 
not be  said  that  the  gloom  which  had  so  long  rested 
upon  Durham  lifted  for  any  very  long  interval. 
Pestilence,  war,  and  dynastic  confusion  were  frequent 
visitors.  Ecclesiastically  the  interest  lies  in  the  echo 
of  the  theological  strife  which  absorbed  the  attention 
of  so  many  in  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  new  century. 
Writs  came  now  and  again  to  the  bishop  to  keep  his 
eye  on  persons  suspected  of  Lollardy,  and  more  than 
one  clergyman  was  denounced  to  Skirlaw  and  his 
successor  "  for  publicly  teaching  erroneous  doctrine," 
or  *'  for  heretical  depravity."  But  Durham  was  not 
greatly  troubled  with  such  influences.  Bishop  Langley 
was  appointed  cardinal — the  only  Durham  cardinal,  save 
Wolsey,  who  never  came  to  Durham.  Langley  was 
much  in  evidence  in  the  city,  where  he  gained  a  great 
reputation  not  only  as  builder  but  as  the  father  of  his 
people,  to  whom  he  showed  in  many  ways  a  very  kindly 


138       EPISCOPAL  PALACES   OF   YORK 

spirit.  In  his  day  help  was  freely  extended  to  persons 
in  sudden  affliction  whether  by  loss,  bereavement,  or 
personal  injury.  An  episode  of  some  importance  in 
his  episcopate  was  the  visit  of  James  I.  of  Scotland  to 
the  castle  in  1424  when  the  long  imprisonment  of  the 
young  king  ended,  and  his  return  to  Scotland  was  pro- 
vided for  in  the  Treaty  of  Durham.  The  palatinate 
was  somewhat  naturally  Lancastrian.  Its  strong  Church 
connection  helped  to  this  end,  and  Langley  no  doubt, 
who  had  been  Lord  Chancellor,  was  appointed  partly 
for  political  reasons  in  order  to  preserve  peace  on 
the  Borders,  and  the  ascendency  of  the  Lancastrian 
house. 

When  the  cardinal  died,  a  Neville  was  made 
bishop.  But  there  was  no  faltering  in  the  loyalty  of 
the  bishopric.  Neville  was  of  peaceful  disposition,  and 
played  a  leading  part  in  more  than  one  truce  with  the 
Scots,  when  Durham  was  the  place  chosen  for  parley 
and  convention  between  representatives  of  both  nations. 
It  is  even  likely  that  his  family  connection  was  utilised 
for  bringing  influence  to  bear  upon  the  great  clans 
of  the  north  to  whom  he  was  related.  Certainly 
troubles  had  arisen  from  time  to  time  when  huntingr- 
parties  had  been  made  the  occasion  of  a  border  raid, 
and  an  attempt  was  made  to  take  away  all  such  need- 
less causes  of  strife  between  the  two  nations,  for  which 
the  great  families  were  mainly  responsible.  In  his 
palatinate  Bishop  Neville  fully  maintained  the  usual 
state  to  which  the  bishops  had  accustomed  the  castle. 
It  is  said  that  the  household  of  an  earl  in  the  fifteenth 
century  averaged  130  persons,  but  the  Bishop  of 
Durham  had  a  larger  retinue,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
soldiers  whom  he  could  muster  on  occasion.  There 
were  now  not  merely  the  officers  of  the  palatinate  and 
of  the  household  of  whom  we  hear  from  the  twelfth 


DURHAM   CASTLE  139 

century  onwards,  but  various  new  servants  appear. 
Neville  makes  mention  of  an  armourer  within  the 
castle,  and  of  a  master  of  the  horse.  Long  before 
this  we  have  esquires,  grooms,  pages ;  and  special 
bequests  made  to  such  servants  seem  to  have  included 
entertainment  for  a  month  after  the  funeral  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  late  bishop's  estate.  The  custom  of  set- 
ting up  the  bishop's  arms  was  now  common.  Langley 
and  Skirlaw  had  both  adorned  their  work  with  their 
achievements.  When  Bishop  Neville  cleared  away 
certain  buildings  on  the  west  side  of  Palace  Green 
and  erected  his  exchequer  buildings  there,  he  set 
before  it  the  Neville  bull,  which  still  stands  over  the 
doorway. 

A  picturesque  event  of  Neville's  episcopate  was 
the  visit  of  Henry  VL  to  the  castle  in  1448.  The 
glory  of  the  reign  of  Henry  V.  was  already  a  mere 
memory,  and  Englishmen  regarded  ruefully  the  decline 
of  their  country's  prestige.  And  now  in  June  and 
July  first  Alnwick  and  then  Warkworth  had  been 
burned  by  the  Scots.  Under  these  circumstances  the 
king  came  on  pilgrimage  to  Durham  about  Michaelmas. 
He  visited  the  tomb  of  St.  Cuthbert  in  state,  and  on 
Michaelmas  Day  "  was  present  in  person  at  first  vespers, 
at  procession,  at  mass,  at  second  vespers."  The  king's 
progress  on  this  occasion  seems  to  have  made  a  pleasant 
impression  upon  him,  for  when  on  his  return  he  reached 
Lincoln,  he  wrote  the  following  letter  : — 

"  Right  trusty  and  well-beloved  :  We  greet  you 
heartily  well,  letting  you  wit  that,  blessed  be  Our 
Lord  God,  we  have  been  right  merry  in  our  pilgrimage, 
considering  three  causes.  One  is  how  that  the  Church 
of  the  Province  of  York  and  Diocese  of  Durham  be 
as  noble  in  doing  of  divine  service,  in  multitude  of 
ministers,  and  in  sumptuous  and  glorious  building  as 


I40       EPISCOPAL   PALACES    OF    YORK 

any  in  our  realm.  And  also  how  our  Lord  has  radicate 
in  the  people  His  faith  and  His  law,  and  that  they  be  as 
Catholic  people  as  ever  we  came  among,  and  all  good 
and  holy,  that  we  dare  say  the  first  commandment  may 
be  verified  right  well  in  them  :  Diiigunt  Dominum  Deum 
ipsorum  ex  totis  animis  suis  ex  tota  mente  sua.  Also  they 
have  done  unto  us  all  great  heartily  reverence  and 
worship  as  ever  we  had,  with  all  great  humanity  and 
meekness,  with  all  celestial,  blessed,  and  honourable 
speech  and  blessing,  as  it  can  be  thought  and  imagined, 
and  all  good  and  better  than  we  had  ever  in  our  life, 
even  as  they  had  been  caelitus  inspirati.  Wherefore  we 
dare  well  say  it  may  be  verified  in  them  the  holy  saying 
of  the  prince  of  the  Apostles,  St.  Peter,  when  he  sayeth  : 
Deum  timete  regem  honorificate.  Qui  timent  dominum  et 
regem  homrificant  cum  dehita  reverentia.  Wherefore  the 
blessing  God  gave  to  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  de- 
scend upon  them  all.  Written  in  our  city  of  Lincoln 
in  crastino  Sti  Lucae  Evangelistae  1448." 

Alas !  the  pilgrimage  availed  little,  so  far  as  the 
immediate  object  was  concerned,  for  within  four  days 
of  the  writing  of  this  letter  the  English,  under  the 
younger  Percy,  were  defeated  with  great  slaughter  at 
Sarke  Water,  whilst  in  the  year  following  the  French 
practically  regained  Normandy,  Troubles  were  hem- 
ming Henry  in  on  every  side,  and  the  Yorkist  party 
strove  to  gain  adherents,  whilst  the  Lancastrians  rallied 
their  forces  to  fight  for  the  king.  So  in  the  year  1457, 
when  the  see  of  Durham  was  vacant  and  sides  were 
being  taken  for  the  White  or  the  Red  Rose,  Margaret, 
the  valiant  queen  of  the  poor  distracted  Henry,  strove 
to  get  a  Lancastrian  bishop  elected  in  the  person  of 
Laurence  Booth.  But  everything  went  against  the 
Lancastrians.  In  the  anxious  days  that  followed  the 
Battle  of  Towton  the  fugitive  Lancastrians  gathered 


DURHAM   CASTLE  141 

in  the  bishopric  and  beyond  it.  But  ordinary  business 
was  not  suspended  in  Durham,  though  the  bishop  must 
have  had  some  anxious  thoughts  as  to  his  future.  A 
fugitive  document  exists  which  shows  how  routine 
went  on  in  the  castle.  In  days  of  peace  there  can  have 
been  no  more  important  occasion  than  the  annual  audit, 
and  we  can  see  from  the  mention  made  in  this  paper 
how  the  castle  was  cleaned  and  repaired,  and  how  stores 
of  hay,  coals,  candles,  and  so  forth  were  purchased. 
At  such  a  time  the  bishop  himself  was  usually  present, 
and  no  doubt  there  was  much  good  cheer  and  festivity 
whilst  the  various  officers  rendered  to  the  receiver- 
general  in  the  great  hall  their  carefully  made  accounts 
for  rents  of  all  lands  through  the  palatinate.  De- 
faulters were  even  imprisoned  in  the  North  Gate, 
and  in  this  particular  year  the  sub-gaoler  received  ten 
shillings  for  good  custody  of  fraudulent  collectors. 
But  the  audit  of  1461  was,  for  the  present,  the  last 
festival  for  the  bishop.  Next  year  the  brave  queen 
returned  from  her  quest  of  troops,  and  entering 
Northumberland,  captured  some  Yorkist  strongholds. 
Men  began  to  fortify  their  houses  with  or  without  the 
bishop's  licence,  in  order  to  withstand  roving  bands  on 
either  side.  Margaret  hoped  against  hope,  whilst 
many  life-long  Lancastrians  went  over  to  the  other 
party.  Edward  himself  came  north  to  direct  the 
movement  which  was  to  sweep  the  Lancastrians  out 
of  Northumberland.  He  reached  Durham  Castle  early 
in  December  1462,  but  here  he  was  laid  low  by  a 
humiliating  attack,  of  measles — "  sykenesse  of  masyls," 
an  old  manuscript  calls  it — and  had  to  stay  not  only 
over  Christmas,  but  until  the  campaign  was  ended. 
What  was  said  by  the  bishop  and  his  unwelcome  guest 
when  they  met,  as  it  may  be  presumed  they  did  meet, 
in  the  castle,  there  is  no  record.      But  it  is  certain  that 


142       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

the  bishop  was  treated  as  disaffected,  and  that  Edward 
seized  upon  the  temporalities,  which  were  not  given 
back  to  Booth  until  he  had  purged  himself  of  suspicion, 
and  was  restored  to  royal  favour  after  the  final  collapse 
of  the  Lancastrian  cause  in  the  north  some  two  years 
later.  During  part  of  this  time  a  garrison  was  placed 
within  the  castle  by  the  king  "  for  the  safe  custody 
of  castle  and  city";  and  as  it  cost  £io6,  3s.  lofd. 
for  wages  and  general  maintenance,  during  a  period 
of  seven  months  only,  the  force  must  have  been 
considerable. 

As  we  approach  the  reign  of  Henry  VIL  it  is 
a  little  puzzling  to  find  several  mentions  of  the  decay 
of  the  Bishop  of  Durham's  castles,  if  Durham  is  to 
be  numbered  amongst  those  in  such  a  condition. 
Richard  III.,  for  instance,  on  more  than  one  occasion, 
wrote  to  the  Pope  and  cardinals  in  order  to  get  some 
reduction  made  in  the  fees  payable  by  Bishop  Sher- 
wood on  account  of  first-fruits  and  other  dues,  the 
reason  given  being  that  the  burden  of  the  Scottish 
war  was  too  heavy  a  charge  for  the  bishop  to  bear. 
The  king  says  that  the  castles  and  towers  belonging 
to  the  Church  at  Durham  are  in  such  a  ruinous 
condition,  partly  owing  to  former  neglect,  and  partly 
owing  to  the  devastation  committed  by  the  Scots,  that 
the  revenues  of  several  years  would  not  be  sufficient  to 
restore  them.  It  may  be  correct  to  except  Durham 
Castle  from  the  general  condemnation,  since  the  work 
of  Hatfield  and  Langley  was  so  recent,  but  it  is 
probable  that  on  the  west  side  overlooking  the  river 
the  Norman  portion  of  early  date  needed  repair. 
At  all  events,  no  distinct  mention  of  any  restoration 
in  that  particular  part  occurs  so  far  in  any  known 
authority.  The  position  of  affairs  demanded  careful 
fortification.     The  palatinate  had  practically  declared 


DURHAM   CASTLE 


143 


for  Richard,  and  as  long  as  he  was  on  the  throne 
there  was  no  fear  of  trouble  in  the  bishopric.  When 
Henry  VII.  became  king,  the  hearts  of  the  men  of 
Northumberland  and  Durham  could  not  at  once  feel 
the  inspiration  of  loyalty  to  a  prince  whom  they 
considered  a  usurper.  Sherwood  himself  was  of  more 
than  doubtful  loyalty,  and  the  obscurity  that  lies 
upon  his  episcopate  prevents  us  from  reading  the 
story  of  his  disgrace.  As  soon  as  he  died,  Henry 
appointed  to  office  in  the  castle  men  whom  he  could 
trust.  Next  he  translated  to  Durham  in  1494  Bishop 
Fox  of  Bath  and  Wells,  his  own  long-tried  friend  and 
counsellor.  Fox  was  to  be  the  repairer  of  the  breach. 
Fox  reached  Durham  at  a  critical  juncture. 
Perkin  Warbeck  had  been  plotting  with  the  Duchess 
of  Burgundy  in  view  of  his  projected  invasion  of 
England,  and  soon  made  his  way  to  Scotland,  where 
James  IV.  received  him  with  effusion  and  gave  him 
in  marriage  the  beautiful  Lady  Catharine  Gordon. 
Between  the  Pretender  and  the  King  of  Scotland 
schemes  for  an  English  war  were  discussed,  and 
James  readily  undertook  to  help  Warbeck  with 
troops.  Fox -began  his  very  necessary  repairs  by  the 
complete  restoration  of  Norham  Castle,  and  it  is 
probable  that  similar  work  was  already  in  hand  at 
Durham.  In  the  midst  of  such  preparations  rapidly 
pushed  on,  the  bishop  received  an  urgent  message 
from  the  king,  bidding  him  make  the  following  pro- 
clamation throughout  the  bishopric  :  "  Forasmuch 
as  the  king  our  sovereign  lord  hath  perfect  under- 
standing that  his  ancient  enemies  the  Scots,  continuing 
in  their  noted  malice  against  our  said  sovereign  lord, 
and  this  his  realm  and  subjects  of  the  same,  intend 
with  their  power  to  invade  this  his  said  realm  some 
time  of  the  month  of  September  next  coming,   pro- 


144       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

posing  in  their  said  invasion  to  do  to  the  subjects  of 
our  said  sovereign  lord  nigh  inhabited  to  the  marches 
against  Scotland  all  the  hurt  and  annoyance  to  them 
possible,  our  said  sovereign  lord  .  .  .  chargeth  and 
commandeth  all  and  every  of  his  subjects  inhabited 
within  the  bishopric  being  betwixt  the  age  of  sixty 
and  sixteen  that  they  and  every  of  them  prepare 
themselves  in  their  best  and  most  defensible  array, 
and  be  ready  to  give  their  attendance  under  his  right 
trusty  and  well-beloved  cousin  the  Lord  Neville." 
The  date  is  August  30,  1497,  and  the  form  of  the 
document  denotes  the  gravity  of  the  situation.  Such 
a  missive  was  unusual,  though  not  without  parallel, 
for  we  can  trace  somewhat  similar  directions  at  other 
crises  of  grave  national  peril.  As  a  rule  the  bishop 
summoned  the  musters  on  his  own  initiative,  but 
a  commission  of  array  like  this  was  ordained  by  the 
king  himself.  Fortunately  it  was  a  demonstration 
merely,  for  the  Scots  did  not  invade  England  at  this 
time,  and  Fox  was  instrumental  in  arranging  a  treaty 
with  King  James,  which  was  to  last  for  seven  years. 

In  the  early  days  of  this  peace  the  vision  which 
had  once  come  to  a  Bishop  of  Durham  two  centuries 
earlier  floated  before  the  mind  of  Bishop  Fox.  Bek 
had  failed  to  marry  Edward  II.  to  the  infant  Margaret 
of  Norway ;  Fox  was  now  commissioned  to  arrange 
a  match  between  Margaret  of  England  and  James  of 
Scotland.  The  negotiations  were  protracted,  and 
many  things  happened  before  the  marriage  was  cele- 
brated, though  it  was  arranged  in  1499.  To  those 
who  have  studied  Border  history  of  this  time,  and 
are  aware  of  the  "  grete  extorciens,  roberes,  murders, 
and  other  great  exorbytances  and  myschieves "  which 
are  characteristic  of  the  palatinate  in  those  troubled 
days,  it  will  be  almost  irresistible  to  connect  the  story 


DURHAM    CASTLE  145 

of  the  rebuilding  at  Durham  Castle  with  this  match 
which  Fox  had  so  much  at  heart.  It  may  be  presumed 
that  the  works  had  been  pushed  on,  and  now  in  this 
auspicious  year  they  were  practically  completed,  so 
that  the  new  buttery  hatch  bore  not  merely  the  legend 
of  the  bishop.  Est  Deo  gratia^  with  his  pelican,  but  the 
date  1499.  Much  alteration  had  taken  place  in 
Bek's  hall,  where  Fox  took  away  one  of  the  "  seats  of 
regality,"  to  which  reference  has  been  made,  and 
shortened  the  southern  end,  converting  the  space  so 
gained  into  a  buttery  with  a  pantry.  He  also  made 
the  two  curious  pulpits  at  the  same  end,  which  were 
designed,  we  are  told,  for  trumpeters  or  musicians ; 
but,  as  they  are  not  large  enough  for  anything  like 
a  band,  we  may  suppose  that  toast-masters  or  pipers 
are  intended.  But  the  most  important  change  was 
the  reconstruction  of  the  Norman  tower  on  the  west 
side  of  the  castle  over  the  river.  In  this  Fox  placed 
a  kitchen  as  ample  and  noble  as  that  of  the  prior 
and  convent,  and  it  is  still  used  to-day  as  the  castle 
kitchen.  The  finished  work  must  have  been  im- 
pressive, and  indeed  a  contemporary  letter  from  Lord 
Darcy  to  the  bishop  describes  quaintly  a  visit  to  the 
castle  in  August  1499.  Darcy  was  at  this  time 
Captain  of  Berwick,  and  was  returning  to  his  post 
after  a  fortnight's  hunting  in  Yorkshire.  "  My  lord, 
both  \  and  my  lady  wass  in  all  your  new  warkes 
at  Doresme,  and  veryly  they  are  of  the  most  goydly 
and  beste  caste  that  I  hav  seyn  after  my  poyr  mynd, 
and  in  especyall  your  kechyn  passeth  all  other."  The 
letter  goes  on  to  say :  "  We  have  huntyd  ther  with 
Mr.  Chanciler  and  Mr.  Tresorer,  but  in  goyde  faithe 
we  and  our  servants  and  dogs  wass  so  were  we  myght 
not,  and  therefor  I  was  so  bold  oppon  your  lordschip 
that  I  had  of  your   veneson   bothe  with  me  and  sent 

K 


146       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

to  Berwicke,"  The  allusion  to  hunting  is  interesting, 
for  it  shows  that  the  great  officials  had  power  to  enter- 
tain in  the  bishop's  absence.  The  deer  were  no  doubt 
in  the  bishop's  park  at  Frankland. 

Princess  Margaret  was  a  mere  child  when  the 
marriage  with  James  was  arranged.  At  last  King 
Henry  deemed  that  he  might  send  away  the  youthful 
bride  to  her  northern  home,  and  possibly  the  postpone- 
ment of  the  wedding  until  the  summer  of  1503  was 
due  to  the  queen's  intercession.  Elizabeth  died  in  the 
early  part  of  the  year,  and  the  pomp  and  circum- 
stance of  the  progress  towards  Holyrood,  together  with 
the  warm  welcome  that  greeted  Margaret  all  along  the 
route,  were  suggested  by  a  desire  to  give  the  mother- 
less child  a  great  send-off.  A  long  account  of  "  the 
Fyancells  of  Margaret "  was  compiled  by  Somerset 
Herald,  who  was  present  throughout.  In  every  town 
through  which  the  gay  procession  passed  there  was 
sumptuous  entertainment,  all  the  chief  men  turning 
out  with  their  retinue  in  livery  to  do  proper  honour 
to  the  princess.  As  they  came  northwards  the  bride 
stayed  at  the  Bishop  of  Durham's  manor-house  in 
Northallerton,  and  again  at  Darlington.  At  last  she 
approached  Durham.  The  Bishop  of  Durham,  her 
host  on  the  two  previous  nights,  was  already  a 
member  of  the  train,  having  accompanied  the  prin- 
cess from  the  south. 

And  now  "  in  fayre  ordre  she  was  conveyed  to  the 
Church,  the  officers  of  arms,  sergeants  of  armes,  trom- 
petts,  and  mynstrells  going  before  her.  At  the  gait 
of  the  Church  was  my  Lord  the  Byschop  of  the  sayd 
place,  and  my  Lord  the  Prior,  revested  in  Pontificales 
with  the  convent  all  revested  of  ryches  copps  in 
processyon  with  the  crossys.  And  there  was  apoynted 
a   place  for  to  kiss  them.  .   .   .  After  this  sche   was 


DURHAM   CASTLE  147 

noble  conveyd  to  the  Castell  wher  her  lodging  was 
prepared  and  drest  honnestly.  And  every  ychon 
retourned  agayn  to  hys  repayre.  The  21st,  22nd,  and 
23rd  days  of  the  said  monneth  sche  sejourned  in  the 
said  Place  of  Durham,  wher  sche  was  well  cheryscht, 
and  hyr  costs  borne  by  the  said  Byschop ;  who  on  the 
23rd  day  held  hoUe  Hall,  and  dowble  dynner,  and 
dowble  soupper  to  all  commers  worthy  for  to  be 
there.  And  in  the  said  Hall  was  sett  all  the  Noblesse, 
as  well  Spiritualls  as  Temporalis,  grett  and  small, 
the  wich  was  welcome  for  this  was  hys  Day  of  In- 
stallacyon." 

Such  was  the  reception  of  Princess  Margaret  in  the 
castle,  and  no  royal  visit  of  state  to  Durham  occurred 
for  a  hundred  years,  when,  as  we  shall  see,  the  great- 
grandson  of  the  little  bride  came  to  the  city.  But 
before  we  look  on  to  the  sequel  one  or  two  points  in 
the  account  of  this  reception  call  for  remark.  Who 
was  the  Bishop  of  Durham  .?  Fox  left  Durham  in 
1 50 1,  for  an  account  survives  of  expenses  incurred  in 
removing  his  effects  from  Auckland  to  Durham  and 
Newcastle.  His  successor  was  appointed  in  the  same 
year,  1501.  Margaret's  visit  to  Durham  took  place 
two  years  later,  and  yet  Bishop  Fox  has  always  been 
associated  with  her  entertainment  at  the  castle.  The 
key  to  the  difficulty  is  found  in  the  last  line  of  the 
quotation  given  above.  Fox  had  been  enthroned  in 
the  cathedral  on  July  23,  1494,  so  that  it  is  ob- 
viously Fox  and  not  Severs,  his  successor,  who  keeps 
the  anniversary.  It  is  tempting  to  believe  that,  by 
some  arrangement  between  the  two  bishops.  Severs 
stood  aside  for  the  occasion,  and  permitted  Fox,  the 
friend  and  godfather  of  the  princess,  to  entertain  her 
in  the  castle  which  he  had  restored,  and  to  entertain 
her  at  an  almost  regal  banquet  when  he  took  leave  of 


148       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

all  his  old  friends  in  the  north  of  England.  The 
unusual  phrases  "  whole  hall,"  "  double  dinner,"  and 
"  double  supper,"  may  mean  that  the  great  hall  was 
not  large  enough,  and  that  this  keeping  of  open  house 
required  the  use  of  the  hall  of  Pudsey  as  well,  or  of 
that  other  hall  in  the  keep  which  the  chronicler  tells 
us  that  Fox  began  but  did  not  complete  because  he 
was  translated  to  Winchester. 

The  great  banquet  in  1503  seems,  as  we  look  back 
upon  it,  to  have  been  a  kind  of  farewell  to  the 
mediaeval  glories  of  Durham.  A  new  century  had 
opened  which  was  to  bring  great  changes  to  bishopric 
and  city,  so  that  the  Durham  of  1603  is  hard  to 
recognise  when  compared  with  the  Durham  of  1503, 
The  happy  auguries  of  peace,  however,  which  greeted 
the  union  of  Stuart  and  Tudor  are  now  remembered  in 
the  light  of  the  proverbial  irony  of  history,  for  within 
ten  years  of  that  glad  acclaim  all  was  stir  and  excite- 
ment within  the  castle  in  preparation  for  the  expedition 
to  withstand  a  new  Scottish  invasion.  James  IV.  had 
been  persuaded  by  the  French  to  enter  England  with  a 
large  force,  and  to  trouble  the  kingdom  whilst  Henry 
and  his  best  men  were  fighting  the  wars  of  the  Holy 
League  in  France.  Ruthall,  the  new  bishop,  who  was 
scarcely  ever  in  Durham,  gave  orders  to  press  on  the 
fortifications  at  Norham  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  what 
was  contemplated,  and  a  special  indulgence  was 
obtained  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  were  willing 
to  lend  aid  to  the  building.  When  he  heard  that  the 
Scots  were  actually  crossing  the  border,  he  hurried 
over  from  France,  where  he  was  in  attendance  upon  the 
king,  and  made  his  way  to  Durham  in  order  to  super- 
vise the  array  of  the  bishopric  musters.  From  Durham 
Castle  he  had  the  joy  of  writing  the  well-known 
letter  in  which  he  described  to  Wolsey  the  victory  at 


DURHAM   CASTLE  149 

Flodden.  "  This  victory  has  been  the  most  happy 
that  can  be  remembered.  All  believe  it  has  been 
wrought  by  the  intercession  of  St.  Cuthbert,  who 
never  suffered  injury  to  be  done  to  his  church  un- 
requited. .  .  .  My  folks  under  St.  Cuthbert's  banner 
brought  home  his  (the  king's)  banner,  his  sword  and 
his  '  gwyschys,'  that  is  to  say,  the  harness  for  his 
thighs."  Those  trophies  were  placed  in  the  cathedral, 
where  the  banner  was  hung  in  the  Nine  Altars  until 
the  dissolution  of  the  monastery  some  thirty  years 
later. 

The  bishop  went  on  from  Durham  to  Auckland. 
The  visit  to  the  north  proved  to  be  an  expensive  one 
for  him,  not  only  in  the  way  of  stores  and  preparations 
"  against  the  transit  against  the  Scots,"  but  in  the  lavish 
entertainment  which  his  rare  presence  in  the  bishopric 
made  appropriate.  No  doubt  the  recent  success,  in 
which  the  men  of  Durham  played  no  small  part, 
induced  the  rather  miserly  prelate  to  open  his  purse- 
strings  more  widely  than  usual.  There  is  a  curious 
entry  in  the  bishop's  accounts  which  shows  how  costly 
a  Scottish  invasion  was  :  "  Paid  Oct.  20  to  William 
Glenny  of  Durham  20s.  for  the  carriage  of  ^800  of 
money  to  Newcastle  with  three  horses,  together  with 
6s.  8d.  paid  for  the  expenses  of  William  Bichbourne, 
Robert  Wright,  and  Robert  Bentley,  servants  of  John 
Rakett,  being  at  Newcastle  in  delivering  the  said 
money  to  Lord  Surrey,  and  the  telling  it  for  4  days, 
by  command  of  my  Lord  Bishop."  So  long  a  time 
did  it  take  to  count  out  the  pennies  which  went  to 
make  up  the  whole  sum  of  what,  it  may  be  presumed, 
is  the  bishop's  contribution  to  the  expedition.  An 
extant  letter  sets  out  his  grievance  in  regard  to  what 
he  was  called  upon  to  pay  at  this  time.  After  a  refer- 
ence to  the  rebuilding  of  Norham,  he  says  :  "  I  lyf  a 


I50       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

pore  lyfe  till  it  be  fynished.  The  hospytalities  of  this 
countray  agreth  not  with  the  buylding  so  greate  a 
warke,  for  thatt  I  spend  here  wold  make  many  towris 
and  refreshe  my  ruynous  howses.  I  broght  hider 
with  me  viii  tunne  of  wyne,  and  Our  Lord  be  thankyd, 
I  hafe  not  two  tunne  left  at  this  houre,  and  this  is 
faire  utterannce  in  two  moneths.  And  schame  it  is  to 
saye  how  many  befs  and  motons  have  been  spent  in  my 
hous,  besids  other  fresh  meats,  whete,  malt,  fysche, 
and  such  baggags.  On  my  fayth  ye  wold  marvayle  if 
my  pastures  had  not  been  sum  what  stockyt  byfore 
behynd,  for  ccc  persons  some  day  is  but  a  small 
numbre,  and  of  these  days  have  I  many,  beside  60  or 
80  beggers  at  the  gate ;  and  this  is  the  way  to  keepe  a 
man  poore." 

It  may  be  added  that  Ruthall  was  not  generally 
considered  to  be  poor,  and  a  story,  which  is  no  doubt 
apocryphal,  was  current  in  Durham  at  a  rather  later 
date,  and  found  its  way  into  the  local  chronicle, 
showing  what  the  bishop's  reputation  was.  Ruthall,  it 
appears,  had  been  commissioned  to  make  a  return  of 
taxable  values,  probably  with  reference  to  a  proposed 
assessment  in  order  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  French 
wars.  When  the  completed  survey  was  brought  to 
the  king,  the  bishop  most  unfortunately  presented 
another  book,  similarly  bound,  in  which  the  full  inven- 
tory of  his  own  estate  was  set  out.  This  indicated, 
says  one  tradition,  personalty  to  the  value  of  nearly 
;^ 1 00,000,  for  Ruthall  was  considered  to  be  the  richest 
subject  in  England.  The  mistake  amused  the  king, 
and  may  possibly  have  suggested  to  him  that  plunder 
of  church  estates  which  was  afterwards  committed  ; 
but  the  bishop  took  it  so  much  to  heart  that  the 
incident  contributed  to  his  death,  which  took  place 
soon  afterwards.      The  occurrence   may  indeed   have 


DURHAM   CASTLE  151 

hastened  the  end,  but  in  all  probability  troubles  in  the 
palatinate  were  as  much  the  cause  of  death  as  his  own 
chagrin.  The  Scots  had  been  troublesome  for  a  year 
or  two,  and  in  1522,  when  Henry,  in  alliance  with 
Charles  V.,  was  fighting  against  France,  they  openly 
strove  to  repeat  the  attempt  which  had  ended  so 
disastrously  at  Flodden,  but  to  repeat  it  without  its 
failure.  Commissions  of  array  were  issued,  and  pro- 
clamation made  throughout  the  bishopric  "  that  all  the 
king's  subjects  are  from  time  to  time  to  keep  good 
watch  upon  the  highways."  All  laggards,  moreover, 
were  to  be  sought  out  and  punished.  It  was  in  the 
midst  of  this  new  turmoil  that  Ruthall  died  in  London. 
He  was,  as  has  been  said,  little  at  Durham,  and  is 
chiefly  remembered  there  now  because  the  fine  bench- 
ends  in  the  castle  chapel  bear  his  arms.  They  were 
originally  placed  at  Auckland,  and  their  transference 
to  Durham  will  be  recorded  in  its  due  place.  It  may 
be  noted  here  that  Ruthall  seems  rather  to  have 
affected  heraldic  display,  since  special  mention  is  made 
after  the  fall  of  Wolsey  of  a  purchase  from  the 
executors  of  Ruthall  of  "  arras  bordered  with  the  arms 
of  St.  Cuthbert  and  of  Ruthall,  and  other  hangings." 

Wolsey  followed  Ruthall,  and  was  almost  certainly 
enthroned  at  Durham  by  proxy.  He  was  already 
Archbishop  of  York  and  Abbot  of  St.  Albans,  and 
had  an  interest  in  not  a  few  other  ecclesiastical  prefer- 
ments. He  was  Bishop  of  Durham  for  about  five 
years,  but  his  enormous  preoccupation  with  State  busi- 
ness prevented  him  from  coming  within  his  northern 
diocese.  Yet  he  knew  all  that  was  going  on  in  the 
palatinate.  Bishop  Ruthall  had  carefully  trained  and 
introduced  to  Durham  a  young  Cambridge  man  called 
William  Franklyn,  whose  rise  and  influence  were  an 
imitation,    not     wholly    unsuccessful,    of    the    rapid 


152       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

advancement  of  Wolsey  himself.  He  held  a  great  deal 
of  local  church  preferment,  and  then  by  degrees,  as 
he  proved  himself  a  good  man  of  business,  came  to 
the  highest  secular  offices  in  the  palatinate.  He  saw 
clearly  that  his  own  profit  lay  in  the  direction  of 
making  himself  indispensable  to  Wolsey,  to  whom  he 
wrote  as  follows  :  "I  can  be  wele  contentyd  at  myen 
own  cost  and  charge,  without  putting  your  grace  to 
any  peny  cost,  every  yere  to  brynge  up  all  your  receitts 
as  wele  of  the  bishopricke  as  of  the  see  of  Yorke  ;  and 
evermore  when  it  shal  be  requysyte  I  shall  resort  to 
Duresme  to  assist  your  officer  ther  and  for  loking  to 
your  profetts  in  such  wise  as  your  grace  shal  be  sub- 
stantially truly  and  well  servid."  Served  in  this  way 
by  a  man  of  great  ability  upon  the  spot,  it  was  possible 
for  Wolsey  to  absent  himself  from  the  castle,  whilst 
Franklyn,  who  lived  there,  or  had  rooms  there,  was 
diligent  in  supervising  the  administration  of  the 
bishopric.  We  have  in  Franklyn's  correspondence 
proof  of  his  activity,  and  now  and  then  gain  a  side- 
light on  the  way  in  which  the  treasurer  suggested 
some  suitable  candidate  for  a  vacant  office,  and  so 
skilfully  arranged  the  personnel  to  his  own  convenience. 
Now  it  is  the  priory  of  Tynemouth,  now  the  chan- 
cellorship, now  the  mastership  of  the  mint  which 
has  thus  to  be  filled,  and  in  each  case  Franklyn  or 
some  other  sends  a  letter-missive  from  the  castle  to 
London  with  the  name  proposed  and  an  account  of  its 
suitability. 

But  office  brings  some  responsibility,  however  care- 
lessly it  may  be  borne,  and  Wolsey  must  have  had  no 
little  concern  in  the  urgent  representations  which  came 
up  from  Durham,  and  could  not  be  entirely  ignored. 
The  Scots,  rarely  quiescent,  were  a  considerable  source 
of  annoyance  during  Wolsey's  absentee  episcopate,  and 


DURHAM    CASTLE  153 

Franklyn's  letters  give  particulars  from  time  to  time 
of  their  inroads,  and  of  the  measures  proposed  to  dis- 
perse the  danger.  He  has  gone  round,  for  instance, 
to  the  chief  towns — to  Durham,  to  Sedgefield,  to  New- 
castle— in  order  to  appeal  to  the  gentlemen  of  the 
bishopric,  who  are  to  meet  at  the  castle  and  discuss  the 
levy  of  extraordinary  musters  to  meet  the  urgency  of 
the  occasion.  Again,  there  is  correspondence  about 
the  pestilent  Tynedale  robbers,  who  have  raided 
Northumberland,  and  have  even  pressed  on  their 
audacious  freebooting  right  into  the  bishopric  itself. 
On  one  occasion  Sir  William  Eure  collected  300 
of  his  personal  friends  to  harry  the  thieves  and 
to  track  them  right  up  to  their  lair.  And  Wolsey 
had  perforce  to  listen  to  the  recital  of  what  his 
representatives  were  doing,  and  to  endorse  it  or 
to  suggest  some  better  course.  It  is  scarcely  won- 
derful, then,  that  when  Fox  died  in  1528,  Wolsey 
wrote  to  the  king  and  suggested  transference  to  Win- 
chester. The  revenues  of  Durham  were  princely,  but 
the  outgoings  were  likewise  princely,  and  Wolsey 
pointed  out  that  in  annual  value  Durham  and 
Winchester  were  of  very  similar  amount.  So  the 
translation  took  effect,  but  in  the  palatinate  Wolsey 
was  regretted,  for,  wealthy  man  that  he  was,  the  pre- 
late composed  the  old  grievance  that  always  agitated 
the  men  of  Durham,  by  paying  them  for  service  against 
the  Scots.  It  was  a  standing  contention  that  the  free- 
men of  the  bishopric  were  not  bound  to  serve  beyond 
Tyne  and  Tees  without  pay,  and  Bek  had  allowed  this, 
but  it  was  constantly  forgotten,  so  that  men  were  forced 
to  fight  outside  the  limits  of  the  palatinate.  Wolsey's 
concession,  after  recent  musters  of  array  which  had 
ignored  the  right,  was  therefore  particularly  acceptable, 
and  as  a  letter  written  from  the  castle  puts  it:   "The 


154       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

liberties  of  St.  Cuthbert  will  be  kept  as  they  never  have 
been  before." 

After  Wolsey's  translation,  the  same  officers  ruled 
in  Durham,  but  the  revenues  are  said  to  have  been 
bestowed  upon  Anne  Boleyn.  Cuthbert  Tunstall  was 
the  next  bishop.  His  long  connection  with  the  see, 
his  troubles,  his  Christian  name,  perhaps,  gave  him  a 
deserved  popularity  in  the  diocese.  But,  above  all,  his 
character,  with  its  calm  wisdom  so  rarely  forgotten, 
made  a  deep  impression  all  through  the  north  of  Eng- 
land as  time  went  on.  He  was  very  little  in  Durham 
during  the  earliest  days  of  his  episcopate,  but  after- 
wards many  things  tended  to  bring  him  to  the  north, 
as  we  shall  see.  The  religious  and  political  troubles 
which  first  absorbed  his  attention  took  him  away  for 
long  intervals,  during  which  he  exercised  a  restraining 
influence  in  London,  where  Parliament  was  registering 
the  king's  imperious  will,  and  altering  the  whole  con- 
stitution of  Church  and  State.  During  this  earlier 
period  his  favour  with  the  king  came  and  went.  In 
1532,  when  the  royal  supremacy  was  under  discussion, 
Tunstall  was,  from  his  position  and  personal  ascen- 
dency, an  important  man  to  win  over  to  the  views  of 
the  king  and  of  Cromwell.  He  did  not  acquiesce  at 
once,  and  messengers  were  sent  to  Durham,  Auckland, 
and  Stockton,  where  the  bishop,  no  doubt,  had  been 
staying,  in  order  to  seize  upon  any  "  books  bearing  on 
the  king's  cause."  Occasion  was  taken  to  make  an 
inventory  of  the  bishop's  movables  in  each  place,  but 
the  visitors  were  surprised  that  they  found  "  so  few 
writings  and  such  a  little  household  stuff."  In  1535, 
when  the  visitation  of  the  monasteries  was  in  progress, 
Tunstall  was  again  in  residence,  and  received  the  visitors, 
who  were  able  to  assure  Cromwell  that  he  had  been 
exerting  his  influence  to  good  purpose  in  the  bishopric 


DURHAM    CASTLE  155 

in  preaching  up  the  royal  supremacy,  "  so  that  no  part 
of  the  realm  is  in  better  order  than  his  diocese."  The 
visit  to  Durham  made  such  an  impression  upon  Layton, 
one  of  the  visitors,  that  he  frankly  said,  "the  country 
round  Durham  has  thrown  off  allegiance  to  the  Pope." 
The  dissolution  of  the  smaller  monasteries  did  not 
affect  the  bishopric,  where  the  predominance  of  the 
great  Benedictine  priory  had  successfully  kept  away 
all  monastic  rivals,  saving,  of  course,  its  dependent  cells 
at  Finchale,  Jarrow,  and  Wearmouth,  though  one  or 
two  friaries  existed  at  Hartlepool,  and  a  nunnery  at 
Neasham.  But  the  bishopric  men  took  up  warmly  the 
demonstration  which  goes  by  the  name  of  the  Pil- 
grimage of  Grace.  This  rising  consisted  of  two  separate 
movements,  the  one  at  the  end  of  1536  and  the  other 
in  1537.  The  earlier  outbreak  was  the  more  for- 
midable, and  if  the  rebels  had  known  when  to  strike 
they  would  have  overcome  the  small  army  sent  against 
them.  So  far  as  the  bishopric  men  are  concerned,  it 
is  difficult  to  see  why  they  rose  with  such  alacrity  to 
the  number  of  three  or  four  thousand  men.  The 
solution  is  probably  found  in  the  fact  that  the  rising 
was  the  ventilation  of  many  grievances,  and  that  they 
protested  not  merely  against  the  surrender  of  the 
smaller  houses  in  Yorkshire  and  Lincolnshire,  but 
against  the  whole  reign  of  terror  under  which  the 
country  had  found  itself,  and  not  least  against  social 
disorganisation.  The  Durham  men  rebelled  against 
their  rents,  and  one  prisoner,  a  servant  of  Sir  Ingram 
Percy,  stated  in  examination  that  the  commons  of  the 
bishopric  sent  his  master  a  letter  in  the  name  of 
"  Captain  Poverty."  The  bishop's  manor  of  Howden 
in  East  Yorkshire  had  been  wholly  sympathetic,  and 
Constable,  the  steward  of  the  liberty,  took  a  prominent 
part  in  what  followed.     How  the  word  passed  on  over 


156       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

the  Tees  northward  is  not  clear.  Probably  Darcy, 
whom  we  have  already  connected  with  Durham,  com- 
municated with  his  friends  the  famous  barons  of  the 
palatinate — Neville,  Latimer,  and  Lumley.  Darcy 
was  now  seventy  years  of  age,  and  his  force  unabated. 
The  Durham  nobles  just  named  were  in  the  field 
at  once,  and  passing  through  the  city  claimed  and 
obtained  the  banner  of  St.  Cuthbert  from  its  restino;- 
place  in  the  cathedral,  Tunstall  was  not  in  the  castle, 
and  so  the  voice  that  had  been  exerted  so  eloquently 
a  year  or  two  before  on  behalf  of  the  supremacy  was 
silent  now.  Lumley  sent  off  word  to  Auckland  that 
it  would  be  wisdom  for  the  bishop  to  escape,  but  a 
noisy  rabble  anticipated  his  action,  and  rushed  off  to 
the  bishop's  house  to  find  that  Tunstall  had  already 
fled  at  midnight  to  Norham.  Upon  this  they  set  to 
work,  and  broke  into  the  palace  and  robbed  his  goods, 
and  then  followed  the  main  body  of  the  pilgrims  into 
Yorkshire,  where  parleys  and  promises  brought  this 
stage  of  the  proceedings  to  an  end  by  Christmas, 

With  the  beginning  of  1537  the  rising  broke  out 
again  under  Bigod,  a  Yorkshireman  of  influence,  who 
wrote  urgently  to  the  men  of  the  bishopric  to  come 
forward  once  more.  But  whatever  sympathy  may 
have  been  shown  towards  his  appeal,  it  was  short-lived. 
In  March,  Norfolk  came  to  Durham  Castle  to  try  the 
rebels  who  were  lying  in  the  jail  there.  With  him 
came  Tunstall,  who  had  spent  the  last  five  months  in 
some  apprehension  at  Norham,  and  did  not  dare  move 
to  Durham  until  Norfolk  arrived.  During  part  of 
March  and  April  the  great  assize  was  held,  and 
examination  of  witnesses  and  prisoners  was  carried 
out.  It  was  decided  that  some  two  dozen  should  be 
executed  in  chains  near  their  dwellings  in  and  around 
Durham,    a    sentence    which    was    duly    carried    out. 


DURHAM   CASTLE  157 

Amongst  the  condemned  within  the  city  was  a  priest 
who  had  been  a  ringleader  of  the  Tynedale  thieves, 
and  had  led  his  robber  band  into  the  bishopric  for  the 
purposes  of  pillage  whilst  the  fighting  men  were  away 
in  Yorkshire.  A  few  months  later,  when  this  exhibi- 
tion of  severity  might  be  supposed  to  have  taken  due 
effect,  the  Lord  Chancellor  sent  down  his  proclamations 
of  pardon  to  the  men  of  the  north.  But  men  talked 
notwithstanding,  and  report  of  seditious  speech  in 
Durham  was  overheard  and  carried  up  to  London. 

The  assize  conducted  by  Norfolk,  in  which  Tun- 
stall  played  a  subordinate  part,  forms  a  landmark  in 
the  history  of  the  castle  and  of  the  palatinate.  King 
Henry  had  designed  some  limitation  of  the  authority  of 
the  bishop,  and  in  this  administration  of  justice  we  see 
the  plan  in  operation.  A  year  before  the  final  pardon 
was  pronounced,  an  act  of  some  importance  had  come 
into  force,  marking  the  transition  from  the  unrestricted 
prerogative  of  old  days  to  the  diminished  powers  of  a 
later  age.  Under  that  act  the  bishop  lost  his  inde- 
pendent judicial  power.  Hitherto  he  had  been  a 
virtual  king  appointing  his  own  judges,  but  from  this 
point  the  judges  within  the  palatinate  were  to  be 
appointed  in  the  king's  name.  In  other  words,  so  far 
as  the  judiciary  went,  the  king's  authority  and  not  the 
bishop's  stood  behind  the  whole  administration  of  law. 
One  of  the  grievances  of  the  rebels  who  came  from  the 
bishopric  in  1536  was  the  abolition  of  Durham  liberties, 
and  this  loss  of  the  bishop's  judicial  independence  may 
have  been  partly  in  their  mind.  However,  the  rebellion 
gave  Henry  the  excuse  for  a  further  blow  at  the 
palatinate  power  by  the  election  of  the  Council  of  the 
North,  which  had  been  contemplated  as  far  back  as 
1535.       The    king    appointed    this    new    method    of 


158       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

governing  the  four  northern  counties  for  the  purpose 
of  defence,  execution  of  justice,  and  finance.  A 
particular  duty  was  to  carry  out  the  dissolution  of 
monasteries.  It  did  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  supersede 
any  official  or  court  already  existing  within  the  castle 
precincts,  but  it  could  do  so  at  any  moment  by 
summoning  any  judicial,  financial,  or  military  case  to 
be  despatched  before  it.  Its  relation  to  the  palatinate 
machinery  may  be  illustrated  by  the  relation  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  to  the  mediaeval  Church  of  England. 
There  was  a  perpetual  likelihood  that  any  cause  ot 
importance  would  be  summoned  away  to  the  central 
authority.  One  practical  effect  of  the  new  council  was 
that  Tunstall  was  for  some  time  rarely  in  Durham. 
The  king  made  him  the  first  president,  partly  by  way 
of  compensation  for  any  loss  of  authority. 

From  this  point  until  the  end  of  the  reign  the 
castle  recedes  from  view.  We  get  in  1539  a  glimpse 
of  the  agitated  discussion  that  must  have  been  going 
on  all  over  the  country  when  at  dinner  in  hall  the 
question  of  monastic  surrender  is  the  subject  of  con- 
versation, and  one  present  declares  that  the  Prior  of 
Mount  Grace  will  never  give  up  his  house.  But  not 
only  did  the  prior  surrender,  but  the  Prior  of  Durham 
signed  the  deed  along  with  his  monks  before  1539  ran 
out.  Chantries,  hospitals,  and  cottages  within  the 
bishopric  also  began  to  fall  before  the  death  of  Henry. 
Tunstall  did  not  come  to  Durham,  or  utter  a  word  of 
protest  so  far  as  we  know,  though  possibly  he  may 
have  considered  that  the  substitution  of  dean  and 
canons  for  prior  and  monks  would  be  no  bad  exchange. 
Amongst  the  earliest  surrendered  chantries  was  one  in 
Durham  Castle,  which  had  no  very  long  history  behind 
it,  and  was  probably  discontinued  when  Walcher's  old 
Norman  chapel  was  given  up  for  its  successor. 


DURHAM    CASTLE  159 

In  1 542  Durham  was  once  more  in  excitement 
over  a  Scottish  expedition,  and  Tunstall,  as  President 
of  the  Council  of  the  North,  came  down  in  person  to 
superintend  the  levies.  Again  the  palatinate  officers  in 
Durham  were  hard  at  work  over  the  necessary  arrange- 
ments, as  when,  for  instance,  special  requisition  was 
made  in  the  city  and  elsewhere  for  carts  to  convey  stores 
towards  Scotland.  The  great  victory  at  Solway  Moss 
recalled  the  glories  of  Flodden,  but  the  war  lingered  on 
for  the  best  part  of  a  year.  Tunstall  stayed  on  in  the 
north  during  this  anxious  time,  and  superintended  the 
works  which  were  in  progress  both  at  Durham  and 
Auckland,  but  chiefly  at  the  former.  In  Durham 
Castle  he  built  a  new  chapel,  which  is  an  interesting 
example  of  debased  Perpendicular.  He  also  caused 
an  approach  to  it  to  be  built,  and  this  is  still  known  as 
Tunstall's  Gallery.  Accounts  for  the  year  1541-42, 
which  still  survive,  show  that  of  a  total  of  ;^334,  4s.  i  id. 
spent  upon  building,  the  greater  part  went  towards  the 
new  gallery  ;  but  it  is  not  clear  whether  the  chapel  was 
already  built,  or  whether  it  came  later.  Yet  one  point 
is  beyond  dispute,  that  the  oak  stalls  now  in  the 
Tunstall  chapel  at  Durham  were  not  transferred  to  it 
until  1547  or  1548.  The  entry  exists  under  those 
years:  "To  Robert  Champne,  etc.,  17  days  in  taking 
down  of  the  stalles  in  the  hye  chapell  [at  Auckland] 
and  sortynge  of  them,  and  dyghtinge  and  dressinge 
of  them,  and  helpinge  to  convey  them  to  Durrani 
39s.  8d."  No  doubt  it  would  be  about  this  time 
that  Tunstall  undertook  other  alterations  in  the  castle. 
He  renewed  the  sides  of  the  gate-house,  and  very 
likely  took  away  the  remains  of  the  Norman  barbican 
which  stood  in  front  of  the  gateway  itself.  He  cer- 
tainly placed  the  double  doors  there,  which  are  still  in 
use.     He  also  brought  a  fresh  supply  of  water  into  the 


i6o       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

castle.  It  seems  probable  that  the  old  Norman  well 
had  been  tapped  in  some  way,  or  at  all  events  that  the 
supply  was  insufficient.  The  matter  had  received 
some  attention  in  the  previous  century,  and  was  des- 
tined to  prove  a  matter  of  anxiety  again. 

In  the  early  days  of  Edward  VI.,  Protector  Somer- 
set sent  down  to  Tunstall  requesting  him  to  make 
search  in  the  palatinate  muniments  at  Durham  for 
precedents  as  regard  the  homage  of  the  Scottish 
kings  to  the  King  of  England.  A  contemporary 
reference  indicates  other  documents  stored  at  Durham 
House  in  London.  The  allusion  to  archives,  then 
probably  intact  within  the  castle  precincts,  suggests 
the  passing  observation  that  one  of  the  great  difficul- 
ties in  dealing  with  the  continuous  history  of  castle, 
or  palatinate,  or  see,  lies  in  the  pillage  and  destruction 
of  parchments  and  papers  which  have  taken  place  from 
time  to  time  during  the  last  three  or  four  hundred 
years.  The  scanty  remnants  that  survive  the  waste  of 
centuries  show  how  well  the  records  of  Durham  must 
once  have  been  kept.  We  are  now  chiefly  dependent 
upon  State  documents  for  such  information  as  we  can 
glean  about  persons  and  events.  Unfortunately  they 
fail  us  as  regards  the  changes  that  must  have  come  to 
pass  during  Edward's  short  reign,  and  we  are  unable 
to  trace  Tunstall  with  any  certainty.  He  was  still 
President  of  the  Council  of  the  North,  and  the  one 
fact  that  comes  clearly  into  the  light,  where  everything 
else  is  so  dark,  is  the  plot  which  was  set  on  foot  to 
degrade  Tunstall  from  his  position  in  the  north  of 
England.  A  malign  influence  was  at  work  in  all  this, 
and  as  a  later  Act  of  Parliament  declares,  it  "  proceeded 
only  upon  untrue  surmises  and  false  accusations  of 
such  as  were  partly  enticed  and  provoked  thereunto 
by  the  sinister  and  corrupt  labours  of  .   .   .  ambitious 


DURHAM    CASTLE  i6i 

persons."  At  the  moment  the  general  story  ran  that 
the  Bishop  of  Durham  was  guilty  of  treasonable  prac- 
tices against  the  king.  The  charge  must  have  been  very 
skilfully  put  together,  and  the  wonder  is  that  it  was 
not  indignantly  repudiated  at  once,  but  the  miscreant 
behind  it  all  knew  how  to  proceed.  So  it  came  to  pass 
that  on  a  flimsy  accusation  Tunstall  was  imprisoned  in 
the  Tower  at  the  end  of  1 5  5  i  for  having  "  consented 
to  a  conspiracy  in  the  north,  for  the  making  a  rebel- 
lion." After  ten  months  he  was  sent  for  and  examined, 
and  deprived  of  his  see.  Those  ten  months  had 
given  the  adversary  opportunity  to  mature  his  designs. 
Northumberland  (for  the  event  points  to  him  as  the 
arch-plotter)  now  came  forward  and  tried  to  get 
Home,  the  new  Dean  of  Durham,  appointed  to  the 
bishopric.  The  duke's  letter  gives  the  clue  to  the 
whole  tangled  skein  :  "And  then  for  the  north  ;  if  his 
Majesty  make  the  Dean  of  Durham  Bishop  of  that  See, 
and  appoint  him  one  thousand  marks  more  to  that  he 
hath  in  the  Deanery  ;  and  the  same  houses  that  he 
now  hath,  as  well  in  the  city  as  in  the  country,  will 
serve  him  right  honourably.  So  may  his  Majesty 
receive  both  the  castle  which  hath  a  princely  site,  and 
the  other  stately  houses  which  the  bishop  hath  in  this 
country  to  his  Highness,  and  the  Chancellor's  living  to 
be  converted  to  the  Deanery,  and  an  honest  man  placed 
in  it ;  the  Vice-Chancellor  to  be  turned  into  the 
Chancellor,  and  the  Suffragan  who  is  placed  without 
the  King's  Majesty's  authority,  and  also  hath  a  great 
living,  not  worthy  of  it,  may  be  removed,  being  neither 
preacher,  learned,  nor  honest  man ;  and  the  same 
living  with  a  little  more  to  the  value  of  it,  an  hundred 
marks,  will  serve  to  the  erection  of  a  bishop  within 
Newcastle.  .  .  .  Thus  may  his  Majesty  place  godly 
ministers  in  these  offices,  as  aforesaid,  and  receive  to 

L 


1 62       EPISCOPAL   PALACES  OF   YORK 

his  crown  ^2000  a  year  of  the  best  lands  within 
the  north  part  of  his  realm."  Here  we  have  an  out- 
line of  one  side  of  the  proposal  in  which  the  king's 
benefit  is  made  to  be  the  ostensible  end  of  what  is 
suggested.  But  we  know  better.  Two  or  three 
months  earlier  Northumberland  had  written  to  the 
king  with  the  direct  request  for  the  palatinate  jurisdic- 
tion of  Durham,  and  had  not  gained  his  petition.  He 
had  been  appointed  Warden-General  of  the  Marches, 
and  in  this  capacity  dreamed  the  dream  that  began  his 
undoing.  He  doubtless  saw  the  possibilities  of  his 
new  position  joined  with  the  ampler  powers  that  might 
be  gained  by  holding  the  palatinate  jurisdiction.  Two 
men  stood  in  his  way  ;  the  one  Tunstall  and  the  other 
the  Dean  Whitehead.  The  latter,  a  man  of  wide 
influence,  was  removed  by  death,  and  Tunstall  was 
removed  by  treachery  or  something  very  like  it.  And 
the  duke's  scheme  soon  went  on  towards  that  realisa- 
tion which  it  never  reached.  A  bill  was  introduced 
into  Parliament  early  in  1553,  and  was  hurried  through 
in  a  few  days.  Following  the  line  suggested  by  the 
letter  quoted  above,  the  see  of  Durham  was  divided 
into  two,  one  at  Durham,  and  the  other  at  Newcastle 
(a  plan  constitutionally  carried  out  in  1884),  and 
further  the  palatinate  was  dissolved  :  "  Be  it  therefore 
enacted,"  ran  the  Act,  "  that  the  said  Bishopric  of 
Durham,  together  with  all  ordinary  jurisdictions  there- 
unto belonging  and  appertaining,  shall  be  adjudged 
from  henceforth  clearly  dissolved,  extinguished,  and 
determined."  Thus  everything  was  made  over  to  the 
king,  and  the  sole  reservation,  so  far  as  the  bishopric 
lands  went,  was  that  of  "  manors,  lands,  tenements, 
and  other  hereditaments  of  the  clear  annual  value  of 
two  thousand  marks,"  and  the  same  for  Newcastle  to 
the  value  of  one  thousand  marks. 


DURHAM   CASTLE  163 

Durham  Castle  and  all  the  other  see-houses  now 
belonged  to  Edward  VI,,  for  it  was  expressly  provided 
that  all  "  honours,  castles,  manors,  lands,  tenements, 
etc.,  shall  be  adjudged  and  deemed  to  be  in  the  King's 
Majesty's  royal  and  actual  possession."  But  North- 
umberland had  other  views,  and  it  seems  clear  enough 
in  the  light  of  the  event  that  he  intended  the  "  castle 
which  hath  a  princely  site,  and  the  other  stately 
houses,"  to  be  his  own  residences,  from  which  he  might 
rule  as  a  Duke  of  Northumberland  indeed  over  his 
wardenship  of  the  marches,  and,  when  he  could  get 
it  transferred,  over  the  palatinate  of  Durham.  Such 
were  his  northern  plans.  In  London  he  seized  upon 
Durham  House,  and  there  in  May  his  son,  Guilford 
Dudley,  was  married  to  the  Lady  Jane  Grey.  In 
July  he  manipulated  the  "  Device  of  the  Succession," 
whereby  the  crown  was  diverted  to  Lady  Jane  Grey  and 
her  consort.  It  was  a  stupendous  ambition.  A  Dudley 
was  to  rule  the  north  of  England  from  Durham 
Castle,  and  the  wife  of  a  Dudley  was  to  be  Queen  of 
England  at  Whitehall. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  was  said  and 
done  in  Durham  when  news  came  down  of  what 
Parliament  had  enacted,  but  no  hint  has  come  to  light 
of  anything  that  took  place  in  the  city  until  the  reign 
ended.  Meanwhile  the  young  king  died,  England  did 
not  rise  to  place  Lady  Jane  Grey  upon  the  throne,  and 
before  the  year  closed  Northumberland  had  paid  the 
penalty  of  his  guilt.  Parliament,  too,  had  assembled, 
and  the  Act  so  lightly  passed  for  the  dissolution  of 
the  palatinate  in  March  was  abrogated  in  November. 
So  Tunstall  was  restored  to  his  see,  and  regained  the 
castle  with  all  other  residences  and  privileges  as  he 
held  them  before  his  imprisonment  two  years  since. 
Next  year,  when  the  papal  jurisdiction  was  restored. 


164       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

and  public  proclamation  of  the  fact  was  made  in  the 
city  and  cathedral,  the  people  of  Durham  showed  pretty 
well  what  the  general  sympathy  had  been  in  the  days 
when  they  dared  not  speak.  The  following  bill  has 
been  found  in  the  treasury  : — 

Expens.  maid  the  day  that  the  proclamation  and 
bonefyrs  war  maid  for  the  receyving  of  the 
Pope  in  this  realm  agayn  as  folowith : — 

First  paid  for  three  bottells  of  wyn  in  Doctor 

Watson's  chambre       .....      xiid^. 

Item  paid  for  two  gallons  of  ayle  dronken  in  the 

garth  .......        \id. 

Item  paid  for  walnotts  bought  ....      'imd. 

Item  paid  for  one  Tarr  barrell  bought        .         .      mid. 

Item   paid   for   wyn   and   ayle   expend    by  the 

servants  at  Nicholas  Turpyn's     .         .         .      mis. 

Item  paid  to  two  mynstralls       ....     \iiid. 


Sum         .         .         .  \is.  xd. 

Dr.  Watson  was  the  new  dean  of  Mary's  appointment, 
so  that  the  bill  discloses  a  carefully- ordered  festivity 
for  three  classes  of  guests,  who  were  thus  entertained 
at  the  expense  of  dean  and  chapter.  No  doubt  a 
similar  celebration  was  enacted  on  the  other  side  of 
the  cathedral  at  the  expense  of  the  bishop.  One  little 
act  of  grace  on  Mary's  part  should  be  noted,  for  she 
made  over  to  the  bishop  the  presentation  to  the  pre- 
bends in  the  cathedral,  so  that  he  would  be  able  to 
place  near  his  castle  at  Durham  men  who  were  person- 
ally acceptable  to  himself.  It  had  always  been  possible 
for  a  bishop  to  find  himself  a  stranger  in  Durham  out- 
side his  own  residence,  owing  to  the  predominance  of 
the  prior  with  his  large  patronage. 

Probably  no  one  felt  more  a  stranger  than  the  first 
Elizabethan  bishop,  who  came  to  Durham  in  1561. 
And  this  was  probably  the  reason  that  Pilkington  lived 


DURHAM    CASTLE  165 

chiefly  at  Auckland,  whence  he  wrote  the  most  pitiful 
appeals  to  Cecil.  He  held  a  sadly  attenuated  power. 
For  nearly  two  years  the  queen  had  absorbed  the 
revenues,  and  when  Pilkington  was  at  last  consecrated 
he  found  that  nearly  one-half  of  the  bishop's  lands 
were  reserved  for  the  queen,  and  though  some  were 
given  back,  she  continued  her  usurpation  of  others, 
and  demanded  a  heavy  rent-charge  from  the  bishop. 
This  treatment  was  naturally  derogatory  to  the  bishop's 
dignity,  and  in  general  estimation  he  was  regarded  as  a 
shadow  of  a  true  Bishop  of  Durham,  and  accordingly 
sent  a  bitter  complaint :  "  In  my  judgment  this  I  see, 
that  here  needs  rather  authority  and  power  to  be  given 
than  taken  away.  They  understand  the  taking  away 
of  the  bishop's  living  whereby  his  power  is  the  less, 
and  so  less  is  he  regarded."  In  Durham  itself  Whit- 
tingham  was  placed  as  dean.  He  had  lived  in  exile 
at  Geneva  during  Mary's  reign,  and  married  a  French 
Huguenot  lady  of  some  distinction  called  Catharine 
Jacquemayne.  She  was  in  thorough  sympathy  with 
the  Calvinistic  doctrines  they  had  both  learnt  at 
Geneva,  and  in  Durham  the  dean  and  his  wife  strove 
to  effect  a  reformation,  as  they  understood  it,  to  the 
great  disturbance  of  society  in  the  city. 

The  Elizabethan  order  of  things  was  endured  and 
not  accepted  in  Durham.  Pilkington  had  pointed  out 
that  "  the  worshipful  of  the  shire  "  were  in  opposition 
to  him,  and  they  lost  no  opportunity  of  showing  their 
disdain  for  a  prelate  who  used  none  of  the  pomp  to 
which  the  earls  palatine  had  accustomed  the  district. 
We  may  imagine  the  scorn  and  ridicule  that  were 
heaped  upon  the  new  regime,  and  how  dislike  smouldered 
whilst  men  hoped  for  some  change  to  take  place.  At 
last,  in  1569,  the  ill-disguised  opposition  of  the  whole 
palatinate  was  suddenly  revealed  when  the  "  Rising  of 


1 66       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

the  Earls  "  took  place.  For  the  second  time  within  a 
generation  the  bishopric  sprang  into  rebellion,  and,  as 
one  who  took  part  in  it  said,  this  proved  to  be  "  the 
greatest  conspiracy  in  this  realm  these  hundred  years." 
The  active  leaders  were  the  Earl  of  Northumberland 
(son  of  the  Percy  attainted  after  the  Pilgrimage  of 
Grace)  and  the  Earl  of  Westmoreland.  Both  these 
noblemen  were  popular  in  the  north,  and  Westmore- 
land was  a  large  landowner  in  the  county.  But,  in 
fact,  nearly  all  the  best-known  gentlemen  joined  the 
enterprise.  The  idea  was  first  sketched  out  in  Sep- 
tember at  a  country-house  party  near  York,  when  for 
a  whole  week  Northumberland,  Westmoreland,  and 
all  the  principal  north-country  magnates  enjoyed  the 
hospitality  of  the  Lord  President.  Plans  were  laid, 
and  the  original  design  was  to  rise  at  the  beginning  of 
next  year.  But  there  were  too  many  in  the  plot,  and 
people  began  to  talk,  and  then  the  bishop  heard  of  it. 
He  very  prudently  went  away  to  London,  and  in  his 
absence  events  were  precipitated.  Under  the  light 
of  the  October  moon  at  Brancepeth  the  retainers  of 
Lord  Westmoreland  were  diligently  drilling  in  the 
park.  By  degrees  their  preparations  matured,  and  on 
the  14th,  about  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  there 
rode  into  Durham  from  Brancepeth  Castle  a  troop  of 
sixty  horsemen  in  full  armour.  There  is  no  hint  of 
opposition.  Framwellgate  Bridge  was  opened  to  them, 
and  they  clattered  up  the  steep  ascent  to  the  great 
north  gate  of  the  castle.  For  all  we  know,  the  porter 
raised  the  heavy  gate,  and  the  soldiers  passed  by 
the  houses  of  chancellor,  vice-chancellor,  seneschal, 
constable  of  the  castle,  and  all  the  other  officers  of 
the  palatinate  without  check  and  without  protest. 
Indeed  the  general  sympathy  of  all  in  authority  seems 
to   have  been   assured.     What   the   Puritan  dean  and 


DURHAM   CASTLE  167 

his  prebendaries  said  we  do  not  know.  At  all  events, 
they  were  powerless  to  resist.  The  horsemen  entered 
the  cathedral,  took  the  Bible  and  Prayer-book,  and 
tore  them  in  pieces,  pulling  down  the  communion 
table  in  the  nave.  Then  a  mass  meeting  of  citizens 
was  held,  probably  on  the  Palace  Green  outside  the 
castle,  and  it  was  announced  that  the  restoration  of 
the  old  religion  had  "  the  queen's "  full  approbation. 
But  they  meant  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  whom  they 
designed  to  marry  to  Norfolk,  and  to  place  upon  the 
throne  of  Elizabeth.  A  guard  of  the  townspeople 
was  set,  which  suggests  that  some  of  the  castle  officers 
■•vere  loyal  still ;  and  then,  after  the  exciting  events  of 
the  afternoon,  the  earls  and  their  horsemen  rode  back 
to  Brancepeth. 

The  earls  had  now  established  "  the  old  and 
Catholic  faith,"  as  they  phrased  it,  in  the  capital  of 
the  palatinate.  They  at  once  marched  south  to  release 
Mary,  and  so  to  make  her  queen.  We  need  not 
follow  them  as  they  marched  on,  entering  the  churches 
and  destroying  Prayer-books  and  tables,  or  tell  again 
the  story  of  their  hasty  retreat  from  Yorkshire  into 
the  bishopric  ;  but  a  word  may  be  said  of  one  final 
scene  in  that  extraordinary  ten  days  before  the  troops 
of  Lord  Sussex  swept  the  rebels  out  of  Durham  into 
Northumberland.  On  St.  Andrew's  Day,  the  fifteenth 
anniversary  of  the  great  reconciliation  of  1554,  a  solemn 
mass  was  sung  in  the  cathedral  in  the  presence  of  the 
Earl  of  Northumberland,  and  on  Advent  Sunday  all 
the  citizens  were  summoned  to  be  present  at  a  great 
service  of  absolution.  The  week  that  followed  saw 
processions  and  services  in  the  old  style,  while  in 
all  the  churches  the  broken  stone  altars  were  put 
back.  Two  workmen  who  were  reluctant  to  help 
were  marched  across  to  the  castle  gaol  and  committed 


1 68       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

to  custody.  But  the  triumph  of  the  earls  was  brief. 
It  is  probable  that  when  they  fell  back  on  the  pala- 
tinate and  seized  the  port  of  Hartlepool  they  expected 
ships  and  troops  from  Alva,  and  that  they  intended  to 
make  the  bishopric  a  stronghold,  from  which  they 
might  win  the  rest  of  England  to  the  old  religion. 
They  miscalculated,  and  the  rebellion  collapsed  at 
the  approach  of  the  army  led  by  Sussex.  But  the 
palatinate  bore  the  brand  of  the  rising  for  many 
a  long  day.  Rigorous  ecclesiastical  proceedings  were 
taken,  and  punishment  inflicted  upon  the  citizens 
who  had  taken  part  in  the  rising.  In  some  cases 
the  extreme  penalty  was  paid,  and  thirty  of  the 
townspeople  were  "appointed  to  die,"  though  it  seems 
doubtful  whether  all  of  these  were  executed.  But  the 
rebellion  gave  the  queen  excuse  for  a  further  blow  at 
the  palatinate  power  when  she  claimed  for  the  crown 
the  forfeited  estate  of  the  Nevilles  and  others  who  had 
been  concerned.  Until  this  time  all  such  forfeited 
lands  had  been  the  right  of  the  bishop,  but  Elizabeth 
secured  the  passing  of  an  Act  of  Attainder  which  gave 
her  the  lands  and  goods  of  the  fifty-eight  persons  con- 
cerned, an  accession  of  wealth  which  was  considerable. 
Then  some  famous  barons  of  the  palatinate,  whose 
ancestors  had  so  often  done  homage  to  the  mediaeval 
bishops  in  the  castle  hall,  disappeared  from  the  county. 
But  the  "  milk  of  the  dun  cow,"  as  a  late  legend 
calls  the  Durham  revenues,  was  so  palatable  to  Queen 
Elizabeth  that  she  tried  to  obtain  more  of  it.  Under 
Bishop  Barnes  further  estates  were  demised  to  the 
queen  at  rents  which  were  probably  low,  and  in  some 
cases  ludicrously  so.  Meanwhile  Pilkington  had  let 
the  see-houses  fall  into  decay,  and  although  no  speci- 
fication of  particulars  can  be  found,  it  is  very  likely 
that  Durham  Castle  is  included  in  the  condemnation. 


a 


DURHAM   CASTLE  169 

At   all   events  Barnes   proceeded   against  Pilkington's 
executors  for  dilapidations.     As  for  himself,  this  bishop 
did  nothing  to  revive  the  dimmed  glories  of  the  pala- 
tinate.    He  undertook  "some  charges  at  the  castle  of 
Durham,"  but  we  are  in  ignorance  as  to  their  nature. 
Possibly  they  refer   to   mere   repairs,   and  possibly  to 
preparations  for  his  own  wedding,  which  took  place 
within   the    castle    chapel,    where    he   was    married    to 
a  Frenchwoman,   who  is   called   in  the   register  Jane 
Dillycot   (Delacourt).      But    by   this   time  the  castle, 
which  seems  to  have  no  other  association  with  Barnes, 
must  have  been  reduced  to  a  mere  set  of  offices — in 
part  for  the  work  of  chancellor,  sheriff,  and  escheator, 
in    part    for    the    examination    of    persons    arraigned 
before  the  ecclesiastical  court  over  which  the  bishop's 
brother  presided.      Certainly  the  gaol  was  not  unused, 
and  Durham  Castle  in  Elizabeth's  reign    must   have 
been    almost    synonymous    with     prison    to    ordinary 
persons.       The    last    twenty    years    of    the    sixteenth 
century    brought     their    own    excitements.      In     the 
Armada  year  the  Earl  of  Huntingdon  sends  a  receipt 
for  200  corslets  and   200   pikes   supplied   to   the  in- 
habitants   of   Durham,    possibly  to    arm    a    bishopric 
band   in   case  of  a   Spanish  descent.      But    the    chief 
foreign  invasion  of  that  period  was  the  more  peaceful 
incursion  of  Jesuits  and  seminary  priests,  who  came  to 
the  bishopric  in   great  numbers.     Ecclesiastical  com- 
missioners and  others  in  authority  were  urged  again 
and  again  to  hunt  them  down.     And  in  this  way  the 
dungeons  in  the   castle    began  to  fill  not  with  debtors 
only,  like  the  poor  man,  aged  a  hundred  years,  who 
petitions  for  release  on  one  occasion,  but  with  seculars 
from  Douai,  and  Jesuits  from  Louvain,  who  landed 
at    some    northern    port    and    preached    through    the 
diocese     until    they    were    chased    and     caught    and 


I70       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

conveyed  to  Durham.  Puritans,  too,  came  under  the 
notice  of  the  "  searchers,"  who  were  placed  as  spies 
in  different  places.  Thus  Sanderson,  a  well-known 
delator^  laid  information  against  a  Newcastle  preacher 
for  indiscreet  exposition,  and  "  meeting  him  in  Dur- 
ham in  my  Lord's  great  chamber,  took  him  by  the 
bosom,  and  gave  him  very  evil  speeches,  saying  he 
would  report  him  to  the  Council."  It  cannot,  indeed, 
be  said  that  the  close  of  Elizabeth's  reign  was  an 
attractive  time  with  all  this  baiting  of  priest  and 
Puritan,  and  an  ominous  element  in  the  situation, 
so  far  as  the  north  went,  was  the  recurrence  of  Border 
troubles.  In  1595  a  letter  written  by  the  Secretary 
of  the  Council  of  the  North  mentions  that  "  the  people 
daily  murdered  by  the  Scots  (and  no  revenge  nor 
restitution  made)  are  utterly  dejected  in  spirit  and 
in  courage  .  .  .  roads,  incursions,  and  frays  [are]  more 
common  into  the  Bishopric  than  heretofore  on  the 
Border."  Three  years  later,  too,  the  keeper  of  Dur- 
ham Gaol,  being  under  examination,  describes  the 
robberies  perpetrated  in  the  bishopric  by  the  Scots. 

With  the  advent  of  the  House  of  Stuart  in  1603 
we  reach  the  centenary  of  Margaret's  visit  to  the  castle. 
Another  procession  is  approaching  Durham,  and  this 
time  from  the  north,  not,  as  in  1503,  from  the  south. 
Castle,  cathedral,  and  city  have  changed  greatly  in  the 
hundred  years.  The  power  of  the  bishop  has  waned, 
the  city  is  governed  by  a  mayor,  the  castle  has  lost 
much  of  its  prestige.  The  great-grandson  of  Margaret 
is  passing  to  what  he  playfully  termed  the  "  land  of 
promise,"  and  the  dream  of  Bek,  which  Fox  dreamed 
again,  is  about  to  reach  its  fulfilment.  How  different 
the  scene !  No  mitred  prior,  no  monks  in  copes,  no 
mediaeval  guilds  greet  King  James.  But  let  us  hear 
the  chronicler.      "  When  he  came  near,  the  magistrates 


DURHAM    CASTLE  171 

of  the  city  met  him,  and  behaving  themselves  as  others 
before  them,  it  was  by  his  Highness  as  thankfully 
accepted.  And  passing  through  the  gates  whence  his 
Excellence  entered  the  market-place,  there  was  an 
excellent  oration  made  unto  him,  containing  in  effect 
the  universal  joy  conceived  by  his  subjects  at  his 
approach,  being  of  power  to  divert  from  them  so  great 
a  sorrow  as  had  lately  possessed  them  all.  The  oration 
ended,  he  passed  towards  the  bishop's  house,  where  he 
was  royally  received,  the  bishop  attending  his  Majesty 
with  an  hundred  gentlemen  in  tawny  liveries.  Of  all 
his  entertainment  in  particular  at  the  bishop's,  his 
merry  and  well-seasoned  jests,  as  well  there  as  in  other 
parts  of  his  journey,  all  his  words  being  full  of  weight, 
and  his  jests  filled  with  the  salt  of  wit,  yet  so  facetious 
and  pleasant,  as  they  were  no  less  gracious  and  worthy 
regard  than  the  words  of  so  royal  a  Majesty,  it  is 
bootless  to  repeat  them,  they  are  so  well  known." 
Unfortunately  no  fuller  record  has  come  down  to  us, 
though  it  would  be  interesting  to  know  some  of  the 
sayings  and  doings  of  "  the  wisest  fool  in  Christen- 
dom "  during  the  entertainment  served  to  him  by 
Bishop  Matthew  in  the  large  hall   that  night. 

King  James  did  not  forget  the  castle.  About  nine 
years  later  than  the  visit  just  recorded  he  was  much 
perplexed  by  an  attachment  which  sprang  up  between 
his  cousin,  Arabella  Stuart,  and  William  Seymour.  No 
match  could  have  been  less  acceptable  to  the  monarch, 
for  the  union  of  these  two  noble  families  would  inevi- 
tably tend  to  strengthen  the  claims  which  both  the 
young  people  possessed  of  a  distinct  title  to  the 
crown.  The  marriage  was  privately  celebrated,  and 
when  James  heard  of  it  he  put  Seymour  into  the 
Tower  and  placed  Arabella  under  surveillance,  which 
was  not  strict  enough  to  prevent  secret  correspondence 


172       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

with  her  husband.  Thinking  nothing  of  the  misery- 
he  was  inflicting,  James  now  determined  to  place 
Arabella  beyond  all  possible  reach  of  Seymour,  and 
for  this  purpose  put  himself  into  communication  with 
Bishop  James  of  Durham.  It  was  agreed  between 
them  that  Arabella  should  be  taken  to  Durham  Castle, 
and  that  the  bishop  should  escort  her  thither  with  a 
sufficient  retinue.  The  negotiations  took  some  time, 
and  in  the  interval,  we  may  suppose,  rooms  would  be 
prepared  for  the  reception  of  the  fair  prisoner  in  the 
castle.  It  is  not  impossible  that  seventeenth-century 
changes  in  the  rooms  over  the  Norman  chapel  which 
were  carried  out  may  have  been  conceived  in  readiness 
for  the  coming  of  Arabella.  But,  be  that  as  it  may, 
she  never  arrived  in  Durham.  When  the  bishop  was 
ready  to  start,  the  luckless  prisoner  was  far  from  well, 
and  it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  she  reached 
Highgate,  where  she  collapsed.  Six  days  later  they 
succeeded  in  getting  her  a  few  miles  farther  on,  but  at 
Barnet  she  was  deemed  too  ill  to  be  moved,  though 
James  said  that  if  he  was  King  of  England  to  Durham 
she  should  go  sooner  or  later.  Three  months'  respite 
were  granted  her,  whilst  the  bishop  continued  his 
journey  to  Durham  alone,  and  Arabella  used  well  the 
time  of  her  convalescence.  A  gentleman  named  Mark- 
ham  managed  things  for  her,  and  by  his  arrangement 
she  slipped  away  in  man's  attire,  intending  to  meet 
her  husband  and  reach  the  Continent.  But  the  plan 
unfortunately  miscarried,  for  Arabella  was  captured 
and  taken  to  the  Tower,  where  she  lost  her  reason,  and 
died  eventually  after  four  years'  imprisonment.  Mean- 
while the  bishop,  after  his  considerable  anxiety,  was  not 
a  little  disconcerted  by  the  news  that  came  to  him. 
He  took  it  all  so  much  to  heart  that  he  fell  ill,  and 
when  at  last  fairly  convalescent  wrote  to  Salisbury  to 


DURHAM   CASTLE  173 

say  that  he  intended  to  visit  Bath  "  to  recover  from  his 
attendance  on  Lady  Arabella." 

King  James  came  again  to  Durham  a  year  or  two 
after  his  cousin's  death  in  the  Tower.  He  was  now 
pursuing  his  fateful  journey  to  Scotland,  where  he  was 
destined  to  foster  the  growth  of  that  religious  ill-will 
which  came  to  maturity  twenty  years  later.  There  had 
been  some  doubt  as  to  whether  he  would  come  over 
from  Auckland,  where  he  was  staying  with  the  bishop. 
But  on  Good  Friday  a  royal  messenger  rode  into  the 
city  and  informed  the  mayor  that  his  Majesty  would 
make  a  state  entry  next  day.  A  good  deal  of  un- 
recorded history  lies  behind  the  pageant  which  was 
then  enacted,  and  it  will  be  enough  to  say  that  bishop 
and  citizens  were  on  bad  terms,  which  the  coming  of 
the  king  did  not  tend  to  improve.  There  had  been 
quarrels  over  the  city  charter,  the  people  pleading 
royal  sanction,  and  the  bishop  claiming  his  sole  right. 
The  king  seems  to  have  sided  with  the  citizens,  and  to 
have  shown  them  almost  undue  honour.  He  passed 
on,  however,  to  cathedral  and  castle,  where  he  took 
occasion  to  rate  the  bishop  soundly.  The  persistent 
tradition  in  Durham,  where  the  king's  anger  is  still 
recorded,  ascribes  it  to  the  quality  of  the  castle  beer, 
which  was  not  to  his  liking  !  It  is  far  more  probable 
that  King  James  indulged  his  love  for  lecturing  his 
subjects,  and  rated  the  bishop  for  his  behaviour  to  the 
people  of  Durham.  At  all  events,  the  poor  man  was 
so  much  exercised  by  the  scolding  he  received  that 
"  he  retired  to  Auckland  and  died  of  a  violent  fit  of 
stone  and  strangury,  brought  on  by  perfect  vexation." 
When  he  was  buried,  some  three  weeks  after  his  enter- 
tainment of  the  king  in  the  castle,  there  were  actual 
riots  in  the  city,  and  these  were  only  quieted  when 
report  went  round  as  to  the  successor  whom  the  king 


174       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

had  appointed.  A  possible  link  between  the  visit  of 
King  James  to  the  castle  and  our  own  days  may  be 
found  in  the  handsome  mantelpiece  which  was  restored 
some  years  ago  to  one  of  the  tapestried  chambers.  It 
has  excellent  carving,  and  bears  the  arms  of  King 
James  and  Bishop  James.  There  are  smaller  achieve- 
ments representing  the  coats  of  contemporary  palatine 
officials. 

Amongst  the  retinue  of  the  king  at  Durham 
during  the  visit  first  recorded  was  Richard  Neile, 
Bishop  of  Lincoln,  one  of  the  foremost  prelates  of  the 
time.  He  had  been  in  evidence  during  the  four  days 
spent  at  the  castle,  and  so,  perhaps,  became  known  to 
the  citizens,  who  were  pleased  with  his  elevation.  He 
was  connected  with  the  new  Arminian  school  of 
thought  then  rising  into  prominence,  and  was  destined 
to  begin  an  ecclesiastical  revolution  in  Durham,  which 
made  the  city  the  talk  of  the  religious  world  for  the 
next  generation.  That  is  a  story  which  need  not  be 
told  here ;  but  what  does  concern  us  is  the  magnificent 
taste  which  was  characteristic  of  Neile,  and  was  dis- 
played almost  at  once  when  he  entered  upon  the  see  of 
Durham.  Our  informant  is  Heylyn,  who  in  his  life 
of  Laud  tells  us  that  when  the  bishop  arrived  he  dis- 
covered that  the  palaces  were  in  great  decay,  and  set 
about  restoring  them.  No  doubt  they  needed  it,  for 
there  had  been  little  enough  money  to  spare,  and  no 
great  restorer  since  Tunstall.  Barnes  only  patched, 
and  the  three  bishops  who  followed  left  no  record  for 
repairs,  whilst  James  had  the  reputation  of  being  close- 
fisted.  Neile  did  a  great  deal  at  Durham,  where  he 
laid  out  a  considerable  sum  of  money,  though  we  have 
no  particulars.  All  we  certainly  know  is  that  he  cut 
short  the  great  hall,  and  turned  the  northern  end  of  it 
into  a  suite  of  rooms  to  which  access  was  gained  from 


DURHAM   CASTLE  175 

a   turret   built   by   Tunstall    and    destroyed  in    1665. 
This  was  poor  taste  according  to  modern  ideas,   but 
Neile  probably  sacrificed  the  dignity  of  a  hall  which 
was  perhaps  too   large   for   his   own  use   in  order   to 
increase  the  accommodation  of  the  castle   for  purposes 
of  entertaining  guests.     The  keep  was  probably  unin- 
habitable, and  the  available  number  of  rooms  cannot 
have  been  large.     He  was  an  excellent  host,  and  he  no 
doubt  desired  to  spread  his  influence  in  the  north  as  he 
did  in  the  south,  by  large  hospitality.     In  London  he 
made  much  of  Durham  House,  where  Laud  and  others 
were  often  with  him,  and  laid  the  schemes  which  were 
to  effect  such  a  change  in  the  Church  of  England.    No 
doubt  he  desired  to  draw  men  round  him  at  Durham 
in  the  same  way,  and  although  he  was  bishop  for  only 
ten  years  before  his  translation  to  York,  he  changed 
the   complexion   of  the  whole   chapter   in   that   short 
time.     This  great  transformation,  with  the  ceremonies 
and  innovations  that  went  with  it,  attracted  notice  in 
Parliament,  and  led  to  a  bitter  strife,  after  Neile  left, 
between  Peter  Smart,  a  prebendary,  and  the  rest  of  the 
chapter.      All  England  may  be  said  to  have  rung  with 
the  clamour  that  was  raised.    It  had  not  subsided  when, 
in  1633,  Charles  I.  paid  a  visit  to  Durham  in  connec- 
tion with  his  momentous  progress  to  Scotland.     On 
this    occasion    great    preparations    were    made,    roads 
mended,    parish    collections    levied,    and    at    last    the 
king    came    to    the    castle    attended    by    the    bishop. 
Charles  had  already  seen  Durham  as  a  boy,  when   he 
had  stayed  with  Bishop  Matthew  at  Auckland.     He 
was  to  see  it  more  than  once  in  later  life.     Of  the 
visit  in  1633  a  careful  record  was  made  by  John  Cosin, 
who    was    then   a    prebendary,   and   was   made   king's 
chaplain  during  the  royal  stay  at  the  castle.      Morton 
gave  up  the  castle  entirely  to  the  use  of  the  king,  and 


176       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

retired  to  the  deanery,  where  he  gave  a  dinner  in 
Charles's  honour.  The  real  master  of  the  ceremonies 
was  Laud,  at  the  moment  Bishop  of  London,  who 
walked  beside  the  king  when  he  went  to  the  cathedral, 
and  regulated  all  the  details  of  the  function.  It  is 
not  hard  to  discover  that  a  good  deal  of  significance 
was  connected  with  the  king's  presence  in  castle  and 
cathedral.  It  was  evidently  intended  to  serve  as  a 
general  endorsement  of  the  changes  which  had  taken 
place  in  service  and  in  personnel.  Charles  was  particu- 
larly careful  to  speak  with  warm  approbation  of  the 
late  Bishop  Neile,  now  archbishop  of  the  province, 
and  to  commend  all  he  had  done  for  the  castle  as  room 
after  room  was  visited  and  traces  of  Neile's  work  were 
pointed  out.  Of  Durham  and  its  castle  at  this  time 
there  is  a  quaint  account  in  the  well-known  "  Relation 
of  a  short  Survey  of  26  Counties,  by  a  Captain,  a  Lieu- 
tenant, and  an  Ancient  .  .  .  begun  on  nth  August 
1634."  It  is  a  document  as  useful  as  it  is  interesting, 
but  the  actual  information  it  gives  about  Durham  is 
meagre,  though  the  description  of  the  cathedral  and 
its  surroundings  has  some  noteworthy  touches.  "  The 
minster,  the  bishop's  castle,  and  the  heart  of  the  city 
stand  on  an  hill.  She  is  environed  and  nigh  girt 
round  by  the  river  Wear.  .  .  .  There  it  stands  the 
bishop's  prince-like  castle,  built  by  William  the  Con- 
queror, with  his  legal  courts  of  judicature,  exchequer, 
chancery,  court  of  pleas,  etc.,  etc.,  the  large  brave 
deanery  with  the  prebends',  chancellor's,  and  church- 
men's houses  and  buildings."  The  three  soldiers  had 
little  idea  that  day  how  soon  the  sumptuousness  of  the 
residences  would  be  impaired  ! 

Shadows  soon  began  to  fall.  In  1635  the  bishop 
had  correspondence  with  the  authorities,  and  made 
a  report  to  the  council   concerning  train-bands,  arms, 


DURHAM   CASTLE  177 

powder,  beacons,  and  other  military  matters.  A  month 
or  two  before  this  report  was  sent  from  Durham  Castle, 
Phineas  Pette  came  northwards,  and  after  lodging  at 
the  post-house  in  Durham  with  homely  entertainment, 
he  "  attended  the  Bishop  of  Durham  with  his  com- 
missions and  instructions,  whom  he  found  wonderfully 
ready  to  assist  him."  Pette  was  at  the  time  engaged 
in  the  reconstitution  of  the  navy,  which  Charles  was 
attempting.  Next  year  the  plague  fell  upon  the  city 
with  terrible  severity.  Meantime  in  Scotland  resent- 
ment was  growing,  and  from  the  end  of  1637  Scots 
flocked  to  sign  the  Covenant,  and  soon  took  up  arms. 
After  unwilling  hesitation  Charles  came  north  in  1639, 
and  a  generation  of  bishopric  men  unused  to  war  were 
rallied  to  take  part  in  the  Bishop's  War.  The  king 
came  to  the  castle  at  the  end  of  April,  and  Morton 
came  over  to  entertain  him.  A  council  of  war  was 
held  in  the  hall,  and  plans  were  discussed  ;  but  on  this 
occasion  there  was  to  be  no  fighting,  for  the  pacifica- 
tion of  Berwick  patched  up  a  peace.  Nor  was  there 
much  fighting  a  year  later,  when  the  uneasy  peace  was 
broken,  and  the  Scots  crossed  the  Tweed.  The  English 
intention  of  carrying  the  war  into  Scotland  was  soon 
restricted  by  the  pressure  of  events,  for  it  was  now 
seen  that  defence  was  all  that  remained.  Durham  was 
a  city  of  stirs  as  troops  hurried  through  and  quarters 
were  requisitioned.  It  was  so  full  that,  as  the  assize 
time  drew  near.  Bishop  Morton  was  in  some  alarm 
about  finding  suitable  lodging  and  provision  for  the 
judges.  Twenty  troops  of  horse  were  quartered 
within  three  miles  of  the  city.  At  last  the  Scottish 
plan  of  invasion  was  complete,  and  what  some  had 
thought  to  be  a  mere  "  northern  crake  "  proved  to  be 
a  crusade.  The  ill-disciplined  army  of  Conway  oflFered 
no  effective  opposition  to   Leslie  at  the  ford  of  New- 

M 


1 78       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

burn.  The  English  troops  broke  and  ran.  Appre- 
hension in  Durham  was  quickened  to  consternation, 
when  that  night  the  fleetest  of  the  horse  dashed  over 
Framwellgate  Bridge  into  the  city.  The  cavalry 
poured  in  during  the  next  few  hours,  and  the  foot 
followed  when  the  day  dawned.  There  was  no  thought 
now  of  holding  the  city,  though  the  magazine  in  the 
castle  had  been  replenished,  for  it  had  been  frankly 
recognised  at  the  outset  that  the  old  fortress  could  not 
withstand  the  growing  precision  of  artillery.  It  was 
therefore  abandoned,  but  indeed  it  was  already  a  de- 
serted city.  A  general  exodus  of  the  chief  inhabitants 
began  as  soon  as  the  result  of  Newburn  was  known. 
The  aged  bishop  went  out  from  the  castle  to  which  he 
was  never  destined  to  return,  and  found  his  way  to 
Stockton,  The  dean  and  the  prebendaries  had  left 
the  college,  expecting  no  mercy  from  covenanting  Scots, 
The  Dean  Balcanquhal,  a  renegade  Scotsman,  spurred 
so  fast  to  the  south,  that  the  proverb,  "  Run  away.  Dr. 
Bokonky,"  was  long  afterwards  applied  by  grammar- 
school  boys  to  any  breathless  fugitive.  "  As  for  the 
city  of  Durham,"  says  an  eye-witness,  "it  became 
a  most  depopulated  place.  Not  one  shop  for  four 
days  after  the  fight  open ;  not  one  house  in  ten  that 
had  either  man,  woman,  or  child  in  it ;  not  one  bit  of 
bread  to  be  got  for  money,  for  the  king's  army  had 
eaten  and  drunk  all  in  their  march  into  Yorkshire, 
The  country  people  durst  not  come  to  market,  which 
made  that  city  in  a  sad  condition  for  want  of  food." 
As  for  the  castle  itself,  it  seems  to  have  been  occupied 
at  once  by  Leslie,  the  Scottish  general,  and  to  have  been 
held  by  him  until  the  Scots  evacuated  England  in  1641, 
The  city  was  practically  a  military  depot  of  the  Scots 
during  the  same  period. 

A  darkness  now  gathers  round  the  castle,  which  it 


DURHAM   CASTLE  179 

is  very  difficult  to  penetrate.  The  Scots  left  in  1641, 
and  Durham  was  exultant,  but  the  Long  Parliament 
frowned  down  its  royalism,  until  in  1644  the  Scots 
came  back,  seized  the  city,  and  held  the  palatinate  for 
three  years  after  the  Battle  of  Marston  Moor.  At 
the  end  of  that  time  Charles  passed  through  Durham 
again,  but  this  time  as  a  prisoner  on  his  way  to 
Holmby  House,  and  there  is  no  record  of  any  stay 
in  the  city.  During  these  troubled  days  the  cathedral 
was  silent,  and  the  offices  of  the  palatinate  were  in 
a  state  of  chaos,  sometimes  filled  in  the  regular  way, 
sometimes  superseded  by  commissioners  appointed  by 
Parliament,  or  by  committees  under  the  same  authority. 
The  episcopal  funds  were  seized,  and  parcels  of  the 
lands  were  sold.  Royalist  gentry  fretted  beneath  the 
tyranny,  and  were  bold  to  meet  and  encourage  one 
another  when  they  could,  but  the  king's  execution  cast 
them  into  deep  dejection,  from  which  they  did  not 
recover  until  the  religious  tyranny  of  the  Protectorate 
led  to  the  Royalist  risings  of  1655.  Within  a  few 
months  of  the  death  of  Charles,  and  under  an  Act 
legalising  the  sale  of  the  bishops'  estates,  the  site  and 
buildings  of  the  castle  were  sold  to  Thomas  Andrews, 
the  day  after  his  appointment  as  Lord  Mayor  of 
London.  Soon  after  this  an  Act  was  passed  to  knight 
him,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  he  came  to  Durham 
or  that  he  made  use  of  the  buildings.  Indeed  our 
next  notice  seems  to  suggest  that  the  castle  was  passed 
on  by  him  to  some  other  owner.  At  all  events,  in 
1650  it  is  stated  to  have  belonged  to  "Mistress 
Blakiston."  Her  tenure  of  it  is  connected  with  one 
of  the  most  distressing  episodes  in  Durham  history. 
After  the  Battle  of  Dunbar  in  1650  some  9000 
prisoners  were  marched  into  England.  Their  fate  is 
described  with  some  detail  by  Sir  Arthur  Haselrig,  who 


i«o 


EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 


had  been  operating  with  Cromwell  in  the  north  and 
recently  bought  the  Auckland  Castle  estate.  The 
prisoners  not  otherwise  disposed  of  were  marched  to 
Durham,  where  the  empty  cathedral  church  seemed  to 
offer  a  barracks  for  their  accommodation.  About  3000 
were  counted  in  at  the  north  door,  but  dysentery  had 
already  broken  out  amongst  them.  "  I  sent  many 
officers,"  says  the  writer,  "  to  look  to  them,  and 
appointed  those  were  sick  should  be  removed  out  the 
cathedral  church  into  the  castle,  which  belongs  to 
Mistress  Blakiston,  and  provided  cooks,  and  they  had 
pottage  made  with  oatmeal,  beef,  and  cabbages,  a  full 
quart  at  a  meal  for  every  prisoner.  ...  In  the  castle 
they  had  very  good  mutton  broth,  and  sometimes  veal 
broth,  and  beef  and  mutton  boiled  together,  and  old 
women  appointed  to  look  to  them  in  the  several  rooms. 
There  was  also  a  physician  to  let  them  blood,  and 
dressed  such  as  were  wounded,  and  gave  the  sick 
physic."  The  letter  was  written  on  the  last  day  of 
October,  about  eight  weeks  after  Dunbar,  and  at  the 
moment  500  were  sick  in  the  castle,  600  were  alive  in 
the  cathedral,  and  1600  were  dead,  whilst  the  remain- 
ing 300  were  partly  officers  sent  away  to  Newcastle, 
and  partly  soldiers  for  whom  Haselrig  was  able  to  find 
suitable  employment. 

It  is  pleasant  to  turn  to  a  better  use  which  was  now 
proposed  for  the  castle  and  the  other  buildings.  A 
talk  of  establishing  a  university  in  connection  with  the 
cathedral  had  led  to  definite  plans  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.,  but  they  fell  through.  A  scheme  for 
a  very  elaborate  college  at  Ripon  had  been  drawn  up 
in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  but  at  length  came  to  nothing 
despite  the  large  amount  of  time  and  trouble  expended 
upon  it.  Copies  of  this  scheme  were  available,  and  it 
no  doubt  helped  to  direct  the  ideas  of  those  who  pro- 


DURHAM    CASTLE  i8i 

moted  the  formation  of  Durham  College.  It  cannot 
fail  to  occur  to  those  who  read  the  petition  of  "  mayor 
and  citizens  of  Durham  and  gentlemen  of  the  northern 
counties,"  that  not  the  least  stimulating  circumstance 
in  drawing  up  the  address  was  the  desire  to  see  the 
stately  buildings  of  Durham  rescued  from  degradation 
and  probable  ruin.  It  was  intended  to  make  the  castle 
an  integral  part  of  the  college  :  cathedral  and  prebendal 
houses  being  likewise  part  of  the  original  endowment. 
Revenues  accruing  from  certain  manors,  and  from  all 
the  dean  and  chapter  livings,  were  bestowed  upon  the 
college,  and  an  imposing  professoriate  was  appointed. 
Such  was  the  material  side  of  the  establishment  after 
negotiations  protracted  over  six  or  seven  years.  There 
is  a  tradition  that  the  scheme  was  actually  floated,  that 
it  "thrived  apace"  for  two  years,  and  then  fell  to  pieces 
at  the  Restoration.  It  would  be  interesting,  if  true, 
to  think  of  undergraduates  lodged  in  the  castle  nearly 
two  hundred  years  before  the  University  of  Durham 
was  founded,  but  the  confident  assertion  of  Hutchinson, 
the  Durham  historian,  lacks  proof.  Indeed  the  proba- 
bilities are  that  the  castle  was  left  to  go  to  rack  and 
ruin  for  the  present.  The  proposed  college  incurred 
the  unmitigated  scorn  of  Fox  the  Quaker,  who  passed 
through  Durham  in  1657.  He  "came  to  Durham," 
he  tells  us  in  his  Journal^  "  where  was  a  man  come  down 
from  London  to  set  up  a  college  to  make  ministers 
of  Christ  as  they  said,  I  went  with  some  others  to 
reason  with  this  man,  and  so  let  him  see  that  to  teach 
men  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin,  and  the  Seven  Arts, 
which  was  all  but  the  teachings  of  the  natural  man,  was 
not  the  way  to  make  them  ministers  of  Christ.  .  .  . 
When  we  had  thus  discoursed  with  the  man  he  became 
very  loving  and  tender,  and  after  he  had  considered 
of  it  he  never  set  up  his  college."     It  can  scarcely  be 


1 82       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF    YORK 

thought  that  the  criticism  of  Fox  caused  the  collapse 
of  Durham  College.  The  downfall  of  the  plan  was 
due  to  the  opposition  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  both 
universities  presenting  petitions  to  Parliament  which 
proved  fatal  to  the  design. 

At  the  Restoration  the  old  order  was  brought  back 
with  wonderful  ease.  The  Presbyterian  Church  had 
been  organised  in  the  county  with  more  detail  than  in 
most  other  parts  of  England,  and  under  the  influence 
of  the  Sunderland  Lilburnes  a  bitter  hatred  of  the 
prostrate  Church  of  England  was  inspired.  All  this 
was  outwardly  suppressed  in  the  Royalist  triumph  that 
followed.  Charles  during  the  vacancy  of  the  see  elected 
to  all  the  vacant  palatinate  offices,  and  the  old  machinery 
which  had  been  inactive  for  so  many  years  was  set  going 
again.  A  waterspout  bearing  the  arms  of  the  see  with- 
out those  of  any  bishop,  suggests  that  necessary  repairs 
in  the  castle  were  commenced  at  once  before  the  new 
bishop  entered  the  diocese.  Cosin,  who  as  prebendary 
fled  at  the  approach  of  the  Scots  in  1 640,  was  appointed 
to  be  bishop.  No  better  choice  could  have  been  made, 
for  few  knew  Durham  better  or  loved  it  more  than  the 
new  prelate,  who  had  learned  much  in  many  ways  during 
the  years  of  exile. 

All  the  see  lands  and  houses  were  at  once  resumed 
without  payment  or  acknowledgment,  and  the  modern 
apologist  of  the  Church  of  England  finds  it  difiicult  to 
get  over  a  transaction  which  ignored  the  vast  sums 
of  money  that  Haselrig,  for  instance,  had  paid  for 
what  Parliament  alienated.  The  manor  of  Auckland 
cost  the  intruder  more  than  ;(^6ooo,  and  the  manor 
of  Wolsingham  nearly  ;^7ooo.  So  far  as  the  castle 
is  concerned,  Cosin  was  the  most  effective  and  wise  of 
all  restorers,  and  the  buildings  owe  very  much  to  his 
knowledge  of  the  place,  his  good  taste,  and  his  personal 


DURHAM   CASTLE  183 

care.  We  are  able  to  follow  the  details  of  his  alterations 
from  year  to  year,  since  the  papers  in  which  everything 
is  specified  with  scrupulous  care  were  collected  by 
Mr.  Mickleton,  the  Durham  antiquary.  There  must 
have  been  a  stupendous  list  of  necessary  repairs  over 
and  above  the  new  buildings  which  were  erected,  and 
Durham  must  have  re-echoed  with  hammer  and  axe  for 
many  years.  An  earlier  note  which  has  been  preserved 
shows  that  even  before  Bishop  Morton's  time  (1632), 
"  dilapidations  committed  and  sustained  by  Bishop 
Howson  only "  were  considerable,  including  "  the 
gatehouse  ready  to  fall."  A  cryptic  allusion  in  Cosin's 
own  writing  shows  that  the  decays  of  the  Civil  War 
period  were  likewise  extensive,  for  he  speaks  of  "  the 
rebuilding  of  Durham  Castle,  which  the  Scots  spoiled 
and  ruined  with  gunpowder,"  The  exact  reference  of 
the  "  gunpowder "  has  never  been  satisfactorily  ex- 
plained. A  letter  of  Sancroft  speaks  of  his  rebuilding 
his  prebendal  house,  "  which  was  demolished  during  the 
late  rebellion."  A  list  of  expenses  incurred  by  the 
prebendaries  shows  that  the  restoration  of  other  houses 
was  even  more  extensive,  so  that  the  general  conclusion 
of  rebuilding  and  repairing  on  a  very  large  scale  seems 
to  be  established.  Cosin  was  happy  in  being  able  to 
obtain  excellent  workmen  in  Durham,  and  the  boast 
that  until  recent  days  the  castle  was  made  in  Durham 
was  worthily  maintained.  His  correspondence  with 
Miles  Stapleton  his  secretary,  Thomas  Arden  his 
steward,  and  others,  relating  to  the  work  in  progress, 
enables  us  to  follow  the  various  stages — the  porch  or 
"  frontispiece  "  leading  into  the  hall,  the  flagging  for 
the  hall  floor,  the  cant  buttresses  supporting  the  hall, 
the  wainscot  of  the  gallery,  the  new  water-supply,  the 
containing  wall  of  the  court,  the  new  wall  leading  to 
the  exchequer,  the  terraces  cut  in  the  keep  mound,  the 


1 84       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

refurnishing  of  the  chapel  that  Tunstall  built.  All 
these  are  minutely  regulated.  But  the  chief  glory  of 
Cosin's  work  was  the  great  oak  staircase  which  was  built 
in  the  north-western  angle  of  the  courtyard.  It  probably 
took  the  place  of  a  turret  built  by  Tunstall.  The 
bishop  gave  careful  directions  as  to  its  construction, 
fearful  lest  its  size  might  spoil  the  symmetry  of  the 
quadrangle.  This  danger  was  not  obviated,  but  the 
magnificence  of  the  staircase  within  as  it  rises  tier 
above  tier  to  the  summit  compensates  for  any  external 
loss. 

Cosin  never  got  the  real  pleasure  out  of  his  restored 
castle  which  he  so  well  merited.  He  was  constantly 
absent  in  London,  and  when  he  came  to  the  north 
was  rarely  very  long  in  Durham.  A  contest  with 
the  citizens  over  parliamentary  representation  greatly 
diminished  the  popularity  he  had  won  when  he  first 
came  back  as  bishop,  and  from  that  time  he  rather 
avoided  the  city.  Yet  when  he  came,  says  Durham 
tradition,  he  was  liberal  enough  in  his  hospitality,  and 
even  in  his  absence  allowed  the  castle  to  be  used  by  his 
officers  for  important  travellers.  In  this  way  the 
Scottish  commissioner  passing  through  with  a  large 
retinue  in  1670  was  splendidly  entertained.  His 
successor,  Bishop  Crewe,  profited  by  the  lavish  outlay 
of  Cosin.  Careful  management  of  the  episcopal  estates 
was  improving  them  greatly,  and  a  number  of  contri- 
butory causes  helped  to  swell  the  revenue.  Crewe 
was  therefore  the  richest  bishop  since  the  Reformation, 
and  when  in  1697  he  succeeded  to  his  father's  barony, 
his  wealth  was  very  considerable.  He  extended  Tun- 
stall's  chapel,  and  adapted  some  of  the  older  rooms  in 
the  castle.  Thus  in  1677  Monmouth,  not  yet  a  rebel, 
came  to  Durham.  Two  years  later  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  York  came  on  a  visit,  at  the  very  time  that 


DURHAM    CASTLE  185 

the  "  Exclusion. "  agitation  was  commencing,  and 
Shaftesbury  was  bringing  in  his  bill.  They  were 
received  by  the  bishop  with  all  possible  honour,  and 
this  fact,  combined  with  later  friendship  and  corre- 
spondence, brought  Crewe  into  at  least  temporary 
unpopularity,  which  was  stimulated  by  his  sympathy 
rather  later  with  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence. 
However,  a  memorial  of  the  royal  visit  is  still  pre- 
served in  the  castle,  where  a  portrait  of  James  II.  by 
Kneller,  and  another  of  Mary  of  Modena  by  Lely, 
hang  in  a  suite  of  rooms  which  Crewe  adapted,  if  he 
did  not  build  them.  Close  by  them  is  a  portrait  of 
Judge  Jeffreys,  who  went  the  Northern  Circuit  (accord- 
ing to  the  old  arrangement)  in  1685,  and  visited 
Durham.  And,  once  more,  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
these  pictures  hangs  a  curious  representation  of  the 
castle  as  it  was  in  Crewe's  time,  showing  the  gateway 
before  Wyatt's  restoration  of  it,  and  the  Norman 
windows  on  the  south  side  of  the  building  before 
Trevor  altered  their  shape  and  plated  over  the  weather- 
beaten  stones  with  eighteenth-century  ashler.  In  the 
courtyard  stands  the  bishop's  coach  drawn  by  six  black 
horses,  whilst  the  trumpeter  waits  near  to  give  signal 
of  departure. 

An  amusing  story  has  been  preserved  in  connection 
with  Crewe,  and  a  scene  which  took  place  at  the  door- 
way of  the  castle  just  mentioned.  The  bishop's  action 
over  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence  was  warmly  re- 
sented, and  when  he  came  down  to  Durham  in  1687 
with  the  express  purpose  of  using  personal  influence  to 
promote  the  reading  of  the  Declaration,  he  summoned 
Dr.  Grey  and  Dr.  Morton  to  come  and  confer  with 
him  at  the  castle.  They  were  both  prebendaries 
holding  important  benefices,  and  Dr.  Grey  was  a 
highly    important    personage    owing    to    family    con- 


1 86       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

nection  and  character.  What  manner  of  leave-taking 
followed  the  interview  may  be  best  described  from  a 
contemporary  document :  "  He  (Bishop  Crewe)  pressed 
Dr.  Grey  (the  great  ornament  of  the  Church  of  Dur- 
ham), and  Dr.  Morton,  to  read  King  James's  declara- 
tion for  a  dispensing  power  in  their  parish  churches, 
which  they  declining  and  arguing  against  it  he  angrily 
told  Dr.  Grey  his  age  made  him  doat  :  he  had  forgot 
his  learning.  The  good  old  doctor  briskly  replied 
he  had  forgot  more  learning  than  his  lordship  ever 
had.  '  Well '  (said  the  bishop),  '  I'll  forgive  and  rever- 
ence you,  but  cannot  pardon  that  blockhead  Morton, 
whom  I  raised  from  nothing."  They  thereupon  took 
their  leave  of  the  bishop,  who  with  great  civility 
waited  upon  them  towards  the  gate,  and  the  porter 
opening  the  wicket  or  postern  only  the  bishop  said, 
'  Sirrah,  why  don't  you  open  the  great  gates  ? '  '  No  ' 
(says  the  Reverend  Dr.  Grey),  'my  lord,  we'll  leave 
the  l?roai^  way  to  your  lordship,  the  strait  way  will 
serve  us  ! 

Crewe  kept  his  episcopal  jubilee  in  1720,  and 
died  next  year.  A  replica  of  a  familiar  portrait  of  the 
bishop,  taken  probably  soon  after  he  came  in  for  the 
Crewe  title,  hangs  in  the  dining-room,  now  the  college 
common  room.  His  arms  impaled  with  those  of  the 
see  are  to  be  seen  on  two  or  three  waterspouts,  and 
also  in  the  castle  chapel.  After  his  long  association 
with  the  buildings  they  fell  into  comparative  neglect 
in  Talbot's  time  (1721-30).  This  bishop  was  un- 
fortunate enough  to  raise  a  tempest  of  ill-feeling 
against  him  before  he  entered  the  diocese.  It  was 
thought  that  he  was  trying  to  arrange  leases  and 
renewals  in  favour  of  his  own  family,  so  that  the 
resentment  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  was 
stirred   in   a   way  which   finds  its  most  exact  parallel 


DURHAM   CASTLE  187 

in  the  storm  which  broke  over  Bishop  Villiers  a  century- 
later  when  he  appointed  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Cheese,  to 
the  vacant  rectory  of  Whitburn.  Talbot  consequently 
deserted  Durham  in  favour  of  Auckland  Castle.  Here 
he  gathered  round  him  a  band  of  young  men  of  talent 
and  distinction  whom  he  promoted  to  important 
benefices.  Butler,  Rundle,  Seeker,  Benson  were  thus 
brought  into  the  diocese,  and  a  tradition  of  personal 
distinction  was  attached  to  the  prebends  in  the  cathe- 
dral, which  he  filled  by  appointing  such  men  as  Seeker. 
Talbot's  portrait  hangs  in  the  common  room,  and  his 
arms  are  placed  with  others  upon  the  east  front  of  the 
hall,  suggesting  that  some  kind  of  repair  of  that  part 
of  the  castle  was  undertaken  in  his  episcopate.  His 
hatchment  is  displayed  on  Cosin's  staircase. 

The  same  neglect  that  seems  to  have  characterised 
Talbot's  tenure  of  the  see  was  remarked  by  a  visitor 
to  the  castle  during  the  episcopate  of  Bishop  Chandler. 
Lady  Oxford,  travelling  to  Scotland  in  the  famous  year 
1745,  describes  her  impressions  as  follows:  "Went  to 
the  bishop's  palace,  which  stands  on  a  very  high  hill, 
and  might  be  made  a  very  fine  place,  but  at  present 
wants  a  great  deal  of  repair.  Went  to  Bishop  Cosin's 
library.  There  are  a  good  collection  of  books,  but  no 
care  taken  either  of  them  or  of  the  room,  which  seems 
to  be  in  some  danger  of  falling."  The  fact  is  that 
Crewe  was  too  old  in  his  later  days  to  come  often  to 
Durham,  whilst  Talbot  cannot  be  proved  to  have 
done  much  beyond  attaching  his  arms  to  the  hall. 
But  the  great  difficulty  in  these  days  was  the  menacing 
condition  of  the  whole  of  the  north  front,  apart  from 
other  portions  of  the  buildings.  Chandler  had  a 
surveyor  sent  down  from  London  about  1742,  by 
whose  direction  chain  bars  were  run  through  the 
building  from  north  to  south,  and  timbers  were  added 


1 88       EPISCOPAL    PALACES   OF   YORK 


to  prevent  the  roof  from  thrusting  out  the  walls. 
The  keep  was  already  ruinous,  having  never  been  used, 
it  is  believed,  since  the  time  of  Bishop  Fox, 

When  Butler  was  appointed  bishop  in  1750,  one  of 
his  earliest  cares  was  to  press  on  with  the  work  which 
Chandler  had  done  imperfectly.  A  careful  survey  of 
the  castle  was  made,  and  as  a  result  the  buildings  were 
put  into  at  least  a  tolerable  state  of  outward  repair. 
The  decay  which  his  predecessor  had  obviated  so  un- 
successfully was  mainly  in  the  central  building,  and 
was  due  to  the  defective  skill  of  Pudsey's  engineer 
some  six  hundred  years  before.  Pudsey  depended 
upon  sheer  weight  to  keep  his  massive  edifice  erect. 
By  the  time  that  Butler  put  his  hand  to  the  work  the 
north  wall  was  nearly  three  feet  out  of  the  perpen- 
dicular in  one  part,  and  the  whole  of  the  wing,  accord- 
ing to  one  account,  seemed  to  threaten  collapse.  Butler 
came  to  the  diocese  in  1751,  and  stayed  for  a  very 
brief  time,  it  would  appear,  within  the  castle.  The 
north  wall  was  rebuilt,  and  various  other  changes  and 
improvements  were  made  by  him.  A  correspondence 
between  him  and  Mr.  Sanderson  Miller  of  Radway  has 
recently  come  to  light,  and  in  this  we  find  the  grave 
author  of  the  Analogy  discussing  the  most  prosaic 
details  of  ornamentation  and  arrangement.  The  exist- 
ing character  of  the  common  room  is  entirely  due  to 
the  conference  between  the  bishop  and  Mr.  Miller,  to 
whom  Butler  eventually  gave  leave  to  do  practically 
what  he  pleased,  in  these  terms :  "I  must  beg  Mr. 
Miller  to  settle  the  whole  plan  as  he  thinks  best,  with- 
out giving  himself  the  trouble  of  writing  any  more 
about  it.  ...  I  am  sure  I  shall  be  pleased  with  the 
room  in  whatever  manner  Mr.  Miller  pleases  to  finish 
it."  Alas  !  Bishop  Butler  never  saw  the  result  of  the 
architect's  journey  to  Durham,  for  there  is  no  proof 


DURHAM   CASTLE  189 

that  he  ever  came  again  to  the  north.  A  later  hand 
sums  up  as  follows  the  alterations  attributed  to  Butler  : 
"  He  pulled  down  the  old  tapestry  hanging  in  the 
dining-room  behind  the  gallery,  and  stuccoed  the  walls 
with  ornaments  below  the  cornice,  and  added  some 
large  foliages  on  the  joining  of  the  compartments  of 
the  roof.  He  enlarged  and  made  new  the  windows 
looking  northwards  on  to  the  grass-walk  out  of  that 
dining-room  in  the  Gothic  taste,  and  made  an  hand- 
some Gothic  chimney-piece  of  stone.  He  took  down 
a  considerable  part  of  the  outside  wall  of  the  castle 
facing  the  north,  which  overhung  the  perpendicular  line 
several  inches,  and  in  the  place  of  the  wall  so  thinned  he 
built  it  up  with  square  stones  well  cramped  with  iron. 
He  also  floored  the  great  west  dining-room  above 
stairs,  and  new  stuccoed  the  senior  judge's  apartments, 
and  made  new  fireplaces  in  them." 

All  these  changes  may  have  been  planned  by  Butler 
during  his  brief  stay  in  1751,  but  it  is  scarcely  probable 
that  they  were  completed  before  his  death  in  June  1752. 
Indeed,  the  arms  of  Bishop  Trevor,  his  successor,  placed 
above  the  grate  in  the  "  senior  judge's  apartments," 
suggest  that  the  alterations  proposed  by  Sanderson 
Miller  were  completed  by  Trevor.  The  notes  just 
quoted  go  on  to  say  that  Trevor  "  finished  the  outside 
wall  of  the  castle  on  the  right  hand  going  out  of  the 
castle  on  to  the  terrace  walk,  and  in  1756,  to  the  right 
hand  of  the  north  door,  placed  in  the  wall  the  coat-of- 
arms  of  the  bishopric  impaled  with  those  of  Butler, 
three  cups  upon  a  bend  cottised."  One  prominent 
feature  of  the  castle  is  certainly  due  to  Trevor,  and 
that  is,  the  refacing  of  the  south  front.  This  had  been 
described  in  Butler's  survey  as  so  weathered  that  not 
one  single  stone  remained  undecayed.  The  exact 
fashion  of   the  twelfth-century  Norman   work   which 


I90       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

Trevor  covered  over  may  be  seen  in  the  painting  of 
the  castle  belonging  to  Crewe's  time.  The  waterspout 
still  bears  Trevor's  initials,  arms  impaled,  and  the  date 
1754,  He  did  not,  however,  reside  much  at  Durham, 
and  the  whole  tendency,  so  far  as  the  castle  went,  was 
to  restrict  its  use  to  the  occasional  visits  of  the  bishop 
at  assize  time,  or  to  take  part  in  some  special  function. 

Egerton,  who  held  the  see  from  1771  to  1787, 
was  at  pains  to  improve  the  breakfast-room  inserted  by 
Bishop  Neile  within  the  great  hall.  Neile's  suite  of 
rooms  so  placed  were  probably  those  used  by  the 
bishop  at  this  time,  whereas  the  so-called  senior  and 
junior  judges'  apartments  were  mainly  used  by  the 
judges  of  assize.  And  this  arrangement  was,  no 
doubt,  maintained  until  the  castle  was  handed  over 
to  the  University  of  Durham  and  Neile's  rooms  were 
cleared  out  of  the  hall.  A  series  of  engravings  appa- 
rently placed  by  Egerton  in  the  rooms  used  by  him  still 
hang  elsewhere  within  the  castle.  Egerton  made  himself 
very  popular  with  the  citizens  of  Durham  by  granting 
a  new  charter  in  1780,  the  previous  charter  having 
been  suspended.  His  aristocratic  connections  (grand- 
son of  the  third  Earl  of  Bridgewater  and  husband  of 
a  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Kent)  brought  him  much 
into  London  society,  and  when  he  was  at  Auckland 
the  house  was  generally  full  of  guests,  but  he  was 
rarely  at  Durham. 

As  the  bishops  enlarged  and  beautified  the  castle 
and  park  at  Auckland,  Durham  Castle  proved  increas- 
ingly a  heavy  burden,  and  in  consequence  the  neglect 
previously  referred  to  continued.  The  mere  living- 
rooms  received  most  attention,  whilst  other  parts  fell 
into  decay.  The  great  north-east  tower  near  the  gaol 
and  below  the  keep,  which  had  been  built  in  the  four- 
teenth   or    fifteenth    century,    collapsed    in    Egerton's 


DURHAM   CASTLE  191 

time,  and  no  attempt  was  made  to  rebuild  it.  Above 
this  the  keep,  which  had  been  surveyed  by  Butler 
with  a  view  to  keeping  out  the  weather,  was  entirely 
neglected,  so  that  in  1789  Bishop  Thurlow  had  the 
top  stories  pulled  down,  leaving  the  lower  part,  which 
fell  more  and  more  into  ruin  until  it  was  rebuilt  by 
the  university  in  1841.  The  prisons,  which  were 
situated  in  the  great  North  Gate,  descending  from 
thence  towards  the  river,  were  still  maintained,  and 
were  visited  by  Howard  in  1774,  which  was,  curiously, 
the  same  year  in  which  the  north-east  tower  fell.  In 
his  report  he  says:  "The  debtors  have  no  court;  their 
free  wards  in  the  low  jail  are  two  damp,  unhealthy 
rooms,  10  feet  4  inches  square.  They  are  never 
suffered  to  go  out  of  these  unless  to  chapel,  and  not 
always  to  that ;  for  on  a  Sunday  when  I  was  there  I 
missed  them  at  chapel.  They  told  me  they  were  not 
permitted  to  go  thither.  No  sewers.  At  more  than 
one  of  my  visits  I  learned  that  the  dirt,  ashes,  &c.,  had 
lain  there  many  months.  The  felons  have  no  court, 
but  they  have  a  day-room,  and  two  small  rooms  for  an 
infirmary.  The  men  are  put  at  night  into  dungeons, 
one  7  feet  square  for  three  prisoners ;  another,  the 
Great  Hole,  16^  by  12  feet,  has  only  a  little  window. 
In  this  I  saw  six  prisoners,  most  of  them  transports, 
chained  to  the  floor.  In  that  situation  they  had  been 
for  many  weeks,  and  were  very  sick.  The  straw  on 
the  stone  floor  was  almost  worn  to  dust !  Long  con- 
finement, and  not  having  the  king's  allowance  of  2s.  6d. 
a  week,  had  urged  them  to  attempt  an  escape,  after 
which  the  jailer  chained  them  as  above.  Common  side 
debtors  in  the  low  jail,  whom  I  saw  eating  boiled  bread 
and  water,  told  me  this  was  the  only  nourishment  some 
had  lived  on  for  nearly  twelve  months.  On  several  of 
my  visits  there  were  boys,  thirteen  and  fifteen  years 


192       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

of  age,  confined  with  the  most  profligate  and 
abandoned." 

The  gaol  with  its  unrecorded  suffering  is  the  worst 
part  of  the  history  of  the  castle.  Occasional  glimpses 
of  a  wretchedness,  regarded  then  as  a  cruel  necessity, 
are  all  that  we  get  to  illustrate  the  life  of  the  prisoners. 
Newcastle,  Morpeth,  and  Durham  contained  the  three 
northern  gaols,  and  at  no  time  can  the  list  of  those 
imprisoned  at  Durham  have  been  small.  The  bishops 
clearly  never  thought  themselves  responsible  for  the 
state  of  these  unfortunate  persons,  beyond  sending 
them  an  occasional  benefaction  or  a  meal.  In  Cosin's 
accounts  such  gifts  are  of  common  occurrence,  and  did 
we  possess  the  household  rolls  of  other  bishops,  we 
might  find  that  they  were  an  established  custom.  As 
late  as  1796 — that  is  to  say,  more  than  twenty  years 
after  Howard  called  men's  attention  to  the  state  of  the 
prisons  in  England — a  petition  was  drawn  up  by  the 
debtors  in  the  North  Gate.  They  describe  their  misery, 
and  beg  the  sheriff  to  assist  them  "  at  this  extreme  time 
of  need,  being  shut  up  in  this  gloomy  prison,  and  con- 
fined with  the  refuse  and  most  abandoned  of  mankind." 

Reforms  worked  slowly,  and  though  under  Bishop 
Barrington  an  excellent  jailer,  Mr.  Wolfe,  was  appointed, 
he  was  not  able  to  ameliorate  the  external  conditions 
to  any  considerable  extent.  The  prisoners  had  better 
food,  but  their  surroundings  did  not  improve.  A 
detailed  visit  paid  by  the  philanthropist  Neild  in  the 
early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  has  been  described 
by  him.  Wolfe  had  converted  one  of  the  rooms  into 
a  soup-kitchen,  which  he  managed  chiefly  by  contribu- 
tions from  the  bishop,  dean,  and  prebendaries.  The 
last-named  he  persuaded  to  commute  "  a  profuse 
dinner  to  the  prisoners  in  the  gaol  at  the  time  they 
severally  kept  their  residences  "  into  a  money  payment 


DURHAM   CASTLE  193 

of  five  guineas  each.  The  result  was  that  a  large  sum 
accumulated,  with  which  the  soup-kitchen  was  main- 
tained, and  a  good  dinner  was  provided  twice  a  week 
not  only  for  the  gaol  but  for  the  Bridewell  (on  the 
river  bank  near  Elvet  Bridge),  whilst  any  little  surplus 
went  to  extinguish  the  small  debts  for  which  some 
of  the  inmates  had  been  imprisoned.  All  that  was 
well,  but  Neild  goes  on  to  say  that  the  five  cells  in 
which  the  felons  slept  "  are  to  be  numbered  amongst 
the  very  worst  in  the  kingdom,  and  the  descent 
to  them  is  by  a  flight  of  forty-one  steps  from 
the  men's  day  room."  He  gives  the  dimensions  of 
the  Great  Hole  which  Howard  described,  and  adds : 
"  There  is  a  part  of  this  prison  which  seems  to  have 
escaped  the  vigilance  of  the  excellent  Howard.  This 
is  a  third  dungeon,  on  the  same  level  with  but  divided 
by  a  passage  from  the  Great  Hole.  I  expressed  a 
desire  to  see  it,  and  the  turnkey  fetched  the  keys. 
This  dungeon,  totally  dark,  is  7  feet  by  6  feet  7  inches, 
and  7  feet  9  inches  high.  In  the  middle  of  the  floor 
is  a  large  massy  wooden  grated  trap-door,  strongly 
clouted  with  iron,  and  with  apertures  4  inches  square. 
Guess  my  surprise,  when  this  door  was  lifted  up,  by 
another  dungeon  presenting  itself.  ...  I  descended 
into  the  lowest  dungeon  of  all  by  eleven  stone  steps, 
which  is  10  feet  by  9  feet,  and  7  feet  high  to  the 
crown  of  the  arch.  .  .  .  Though  there  was  no  ventila- 
tion whatever  in  this  dungeon,  I  found  it  perfectly  dry, 
and  less  disagreeable  than  the  arched  landing-place 
above  it.  .  .  .  When  the  prison  was  built  this  place 
must  have  been  intended  as  an  oubliette."  Neild  com- 
pletes his  account  of  the  felons'  prison  by  saying,  "  I 
have  often  wished  a  new  gaol  was  at  this  place." 
Public  interest  was  aroused  in  England  generally  by 
Neild's  account  of  the  various  prisons  he  visited,  and 

N 


194       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

it  is  by  no  means  impossible  that  the  demoHtion  of  the 
castle  gaol  was  partly  due  to  his  description.  At  all 
events,  a  new  gaol  was  begun  in  1 809  in  Old  Elvet, 
but  the  prisoners  were  not  moved  from  the  castle  until 
1 8 19,  In  the  following  year  the  great  archway  span- 
ning Saddler  Street  was  taken  down,  and  the  gaol  was 
demolished,  though  some  of  the  cells  still  exist  below 
the  houses  in  Saddler  Street. 

But  to  return  for  a  moment  to  a  rather  earlier  date 
in  connection  with  the  castle.  John  Wesley  was  a 
frequent  visitor  to  Durham,  where  his  "  Society  "  flour- 
ished exceedingly.  In  1780  he  passed  through  the  city 
on  his  return  from  a  tour  in  Scotland,  and  on  this 
occasion,  for  the  first  time,  found  opportunity  to  enter 
the  castle.  He  says  :  "  In  the  afternoon  we  took  a 
view  of  the  castle  at  Durham,  the  residence  of  the 
bishop.  The  situation  is  wonderfully  fine,  surrounded 
by  the  river,  and  commanding  all  the  country ;  and 
many  of  the  apartments  are  large  and  stately :  but  the 
furniture  is  mean  beyond  imagination  !  I  know  not 
where  I  have  seen  such  in  a  gentleman's  house,  or  a 
man  of  five  hundred  a  year,  except  that  of  the  Lord 
Lieutenant  in  Dublin.  In  the  largest  chambers  the 
tapestry  is  quite  faded,  beside  that  it  is  coarse  and  ill- 
judged.  Take  but  one  instance  :  in  Jacob's  vision  you 
see  on  the  one  side  a  little  paltry  ladder,  and  an  angel 
climbing  it  in  the  attitude  of  a  chimney-sweeper ;  on 
the  other  side  Jacob  staring  at  him  from  under  a  large 
silver-laced  hat ! "  The  particular  piece  of  tapestry 
which  called  down  upon  it  Wesley's  criticism  is  no 
longer  in  the  castle,  but  its  companion  breadth,  no 
doubt,  still  hangs  on  the  wall  of  the  senior  judge's 
room  along  with  other  scenes  from  the  lives  of  the 
patriarchs.  Wesley's  evidence,  however,  is  valuable 
as  showing  the  increasing  neglect  to  which  more  than 


DURHAM   CASTLE  195 

one  reference  has  been  made.  No  doubt,  when  the 
assizes  were  held,  furniture  was  brought  over  from 
Auckland  for  the  time  being. 

Bishop  Barrington,  who  did  so  much  in  many  ways 
for  the  diocese,  made,  at  all  events,  one  alteration  which 
catches  the  eye  of  every  visitor.  Cosin  replaced  the 
gate-house,  but  lapse  of  time  had  necessitated  further 
restoration.  Unfortunately  Barrington  put  himself 
into  the  hands  of  Wyatt,  who  sketched  out  a  recast  of 
the  building.  He  probably  took  down  and  reset  the 
Norman  arch,  rehung  the  gates,  preserved  the  groining 
of  the  doorway  above  them,  and  then  over  all  this 
lower  stage  he  built  afresh  two  upper  stories  in  the 
worst  style  of  the  time.  But  he  had  one  piece  of  good 
fortune,  for  in  making  some  alterations  in  Tunstall's 
gallery  he  discovered  Pudsey's  grand  doorway,  which 
had  been  covered  up  for  a  long  period,  probably  since 
the  days  of  Bishop  Crewe. 

With  the  episcopate  of  Van  Mildert,  who  came  to 
Durham  in  1826,  we  reach  the  close  of  the  long  con- 
nection of  the  castle  with  the  Bishops  of  Durham.  It 
was  marked  by  a  banquet  in  which  an  unconscious 
farewell  was  taken  of  the  older  history,  much  as 
the  banquet  of  1503  was  a  farewell  to  the  mediaeval 
history  of  Durham.  In  1827  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton was  making  a  round  of  visits  in  the  north  of 
England.  Wherever  he  made  his  appearance  in  this 
triumphal  progress  he  was  received  with  acclamation. 
The  streets  were  decorated,  addresses  were  presented, 
and  speeches  were  made  in  towns  and  villages,  and  at 
night,  balls  and  parties  were  given  in  his  honour,  and 
the  houses  illuminated.  At  one  stage  of  the  journey 
the  duke  was  the  guest  of  Lord  Ravensworth,  at 
whose  house  a  large  house-party  assembled  to  meet 
the  hero.    Sir  Walter  Scott,  always  attached  to  Durham, 


196       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

and  no  infrequent  visitor,  was  one  of  the  Ravensworth 
guests,  and  drove  over  to  take  part  in  public  and 
private  proceedings  arranged  to  do  full  honour  to  the 
duke  in  Durham.  Fortunately  Sir  Walter  has  given 
us  some  account  of  what  took  place  in  the  castle  : 

"  October  3  :  Went  to  Durham  with  Lord  Ravens- 
worth  betwixt  one  and  two.  Found  the  gentlemen  of 
Durham  county  and  town  assembled  to  receive  the 
Duke  of  Wellington.  .  .  .  The  duke  arrived  very 
late.  There  were  bells,  and  cannon,  and  drums, 
trumpets  and  banners,  besides  a  fine  troop  of  yeo- 
manry. .  .  .  We  dined  about  one  hundred  and  forty 
or  fifty  men,  a  distinguished  company  for  rank  and 
property : — 

'  Lords  and  dukes  and  noble  princes, 
All  the  pride  and  flower  of  Spain.' 

We  dined  in  the  old  baronial  hall,  impressive  from  its 
rude  antiquity,  and  fortunately  free  from  the  plaster 
of  former  improvement,  as  I  trust  it  will  long  be  from 
the  gingerbread  taste  of  modern  Gothicizers.  The 
bright  moon  streaming  in  through  the  old  Gothic 
windows  contrasted  strangely  with  the  artificial  lights 
within.  Spears,  banners,  and  armour  were  intermixed 
with  the  pictures  of  the  old  bishops,  and  the  whole 
had  a  singular  mixture  of  baronial  pomp  with  the 
grave  and  more  chastened  dignity  of  prelacy." 

Dr.  Phillpotts,  then  a  prebendary,  and  later  Bishop 
of  Exeter,  was  another  of  those  present,  and  has  left  in 
a  letter  a  mention  of  the  banquet  which  has  its  own 
interest :  '*  Sometimes  I  doubted  whether  the  hero  or 
the  poet  was  fixing  most  attention.  The  latter,  I  need 
hardly  tell  you,  appeared  unconscious  that  he  was 
regarded  differently  from  those  around  him,  until  the 
good  bishop  arose  and  proposed  his  health." 


DURHAM   CASTLE  197 

Ten  years  of  great  political  excitement  followed 
this  virtual  farewell  to  what  the  castle  had  been. 
Change  was  in  the  air  ;  the  Emancipation  Bill  and 
the  Reform  Bill  were  passed.  A  clamour  was  raised 
against  the  Church  and  its  wealth,  and  not  least  against 
the  wealth  of  the  diocese  of  Durham.  The  bishop 
himself  pressed  on  Dean  and  Chapter  the  foundation 
of  the  University  of  Durham,  which  was  established  in 
1832.  To  the  new  institution  the  bishop  proved  its 
most  kindly  patron,  and  crowned  his  munificence  by 
drawing  up  a  scheme  for  the  virtual  surrender  of  the 
castle  to  the  university,  to  take  effect  at  his  death. 
The  bishop  had  warmly  welcomed  Archbishop  How- 
ley's  bill  to  empower  chapters  and  others  to  surrender 
lands  and  endowments  for  church  purposes.  This  Act 
eventually  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
Commission.  After  the  bishop's  death  the  Commis- 
sioners formally  proposed  that  the  Bishop  of  Durham 
for  the  time  being  "  shall  hold  the  castle  of  Durham, 
including  all  the  precincts  of  the  said  castle,  and  all 
the  houses,  buildings,  lands,  tenements,  and  heredita- 
ments heretofore  known  or  accepted  as  parcel  of  the 
said  precincts,  and  all  rights,  privileges,  ways,  ease- 
ments, and  advantages  thereto  belonging,  in  trust  for 
the  University  of  Durham."  One  or  two  special 
provisos  were  attached  to  the  proposal.  It  was  stipu- 
lated that  "  all  such  officers  of  the  palatinate  of 
Durham  as  have  performed  for  thirty  years  now  last 
past  and  now  do  perform  the  duties  of  their  respective 
offices  in  any  building  within  the  said  precincts  "  should 
continue  to  occupy  those  buildings  "  so  long  as  any  of 
those  duties  shall  remain  to  be  performed  by  the 
officers  who  held  their  offices  at  the  time  of  passing 
the  Act  for  separating  the  palatinate  jurisdiction  from 
the  bishopric  of  Durham." 


198       EPISCOPAL   PALACES    OF   YORK 

To  the  further  fortunes  of  the  castle  we  shall 
return  in  a  moment,  but  the  mention  of  the  separation 
of  the  palatinate  jurisdiction  introduces  us  to  another 
great  change  which  must  be  duly  emphasised.  What 
the  palatinate  power  was  in  the  days  of  its  glory  we 
have  seen  in  connection  with  Bek  and  Hatfield. 
What  it  was  when  the  Tudors  resumed  its  judiciary 
authority  and  began  to  cut  it  short  we  have  also  seen. 
That  somewhat  abridged  prestige  continued  until  1836, 
when  the  Act  alluded  to  was  passed,  enacting  that 
from  henceforth  all  the  palatinate  privileges  should  be 
vested  in  the  Crown.  Until  this  time  the  old  courts, 
the  old  offices,  the  old  names  had  been  continued,  and 
the  business  side  of  the  little  kingdom  went  on  very 
much  as  before,  administered  from  the  same  general 
centre  as  heretofore  in  the  precincts  of  Durham  Castle. 
A  list  of  the  officers  in  1820  will  show  how  varied  the 
machinery  must  have  been  : — 

Court  of  Chancery  and  Exchequer.  —  Chancellor, 
Registrar,  Deputy  -  Registrar,  Cursitor,  Examiner, 
Attorney-General,  Solicitor-General,  Auditor,  Deputy- 
Auditor,  Receiver-General,  Exchequer  Bailiff. 

Court  of  Pleas. — The  Judges  of  Assize,  Prothono- 
tary.  Deputy  Prothonotary,  Sheriff,  Deputy-Sheriff, 
Clerk  of  Peace,  Clerk  of  Crown,  County  Clerk, 
Deputy  County  Clerk,   Gaoler. 

Coroners.  —  Darlington  Ward,  Stockton  Ward, 
Easington  Ward,  Chester  Ward. 

Stewards  and  Officers  of  Halmote  Courts. — (i)  County 
at  large,  including  Bedlingtonshire,  Deputy  ditto.  Clerk, 
Deputy-Clerk  ;  (2)  Allertonshire  ;  (3)  Howdenshire  ; 
various  Under-Stewards. 

Stewards  of  the  Boroughs. — Durham,  Darlington, 
Auckland,  Stockton,  Gateshead,  Sunderland. 

Bailiffs  of  Manors  or  Boroughs. — Darlington,  Auck- 


DURHAM   CASTLE  199 

land,  Evenwood,  Stanhope,  Wolsingham,  Whickham, 
Lanchester,  Stockton,  Sadberge,  Middleham,  Coatham, 
Mundeville,  Chester,  BedHngton. 

Durham  Castle. — Constable,  Steward,  Porter. 

Auckland  Castle  and  Park. — Keeper. 

Darlington  Manor-house. — Keeper. 

Forester  and  Keeper  of  Weardale. 

Keepers  of  Woods. — ^Birtley,  Auckland,  Frankland. 

These  diversified  offices  were  often  bestowed  in  twos 
and  threes  upon  the  same  man.  Sometimes  they  were 
sinecures.  Others  were  posts  of  considerable  trust  and 
emolument.  Others  still  were  paid  in  kind,  or  by 
some  small  money  payment.  Many  of  the  holders 
were  rarely  in  Durham.  Others  were  local  gentry  of 
position.  Others,  like  the  permanent  officials  of  the 
courts,  and  also  the  coroners,  resided  near  the  castle. 
When  the  Act  of  1836  was  passed  this  temporal  side 
of  the  palatinate,  which  had  been  so  long  centred  in 
the  castle,  was  variously  distributed.  The  Court  of 
Pleas  was  maintained  until  1873,  and  was  then 
abolished.  The  Court  of  Chancery  still  exists.  All 
the  estates  were  administered  by  the  Ecclesiastical 
Commissioners,  and  the  officers  were  rearranged  at 
their  pleasure.  Durham  Castle  went  to  the  university  ; 
Auckland  Castle  to  the  bishop,  who  thenceforward 
was  paid  a  fixed  annual  income  by  the  Commissioners. 

Such  was  the  rearrangement  of  1836,  and  by  it  the 
temporal  glory  of  the  Bishop  of  Durham  was  lost. 
The  castle  entered  upon  an  entirely  new  chapter  of 
history.  It  was  at  first  the  one  college  in  the  new 
University  of  Durham.  For  some  years  it  was  termed 
in  the  calendar  "  The  University  College,"  but  when 
Hatfield  Hall  was  instituted  in  1 846  the  article  was 
dropped,  and  it  has  been  called  ever  since  University 
College,  though  the  time-honoured  name  "  castle  "  has 


200       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

never  departed  from  the  ancient  buildings,  whose 
inmates  are  still  "  Castle  Men."  No  one  can  deplore 
the  use  to  which  the  castle  has  been  put  during  the 
last  seventy  years.  Its  condition  until  that  time  had 
too  often  been  one  of  lifeless  neglect,  save  under  the 
occupation  of  Crewe,  or  some  other  bishop  who 
loved  Durham  for  its  own  sake.  It  may  be  questioned 
whether  during  the  long  centuries  of  its  history  the 
fabric  has  ever  been  so  carefully  tended  as  in  the  recent 
years  of  its  occupation  by  the  university.  Large  sums 
of  money  have  been  expended  upon  it.  In  1841  the 
modern  keep  took  the  place  of  the  ruinous  pile  that 
had  lingered  so  long  upon  the  mound.  In  1846 
Neile's  additions  to  the  hall  were  taken  away,  and  its 
proper  length  restored.  In  1905  the  central  part, 
which  had  given  such  trouble  to  Chandler  and  Butler, 
was  once  more  rendered  secure,  and  ought  to  outlast 
not  a  few  of  the  years  to  come.  Held  in  trust  by  the 
Bishop  of  Durham  for  the  university  since  1837,  the 
buildings  have,  in  1908,  been  transferred  by  Act  of 
Parliament  to  the  Council  of  the  Durham  Colleges. 


^ucftfan^  Ca0^fe 


FROM  Darlington  to  Acheland,  8  good  Miles 
by  resonable  good  Corne  &  Pasture. 
"A  Mile  a  this  side  Akeland  Castelle  I 
cam  over  a  Bridg  of  one  great  Arch  on  Gaun- 
delesse,  a  Praty  Ryver  rising  a  vj   Miles  of  by  West : 
and  running  by  the  South  Side  of  Akeland  Castelle 
goith  a  little  beneth  it  to  the  great  Streame  of  Were. 

"  Gaundeles  rising  by  West  cummith  by  Westake- 
land,  by  S.  Helenes  Akeland,  by  S.  Andreas  Akeland, 
&  by  Bishop  Akelande. 

"  The  Towne  self  of  Akeland  is  of  no  Estimacion, 
yet  is  ther  a  praty  Market  of  Corne. 

"  It  standith  on  a  praty  hille  bytween  2  Ryvers, 
whereof  Were  lyeth  on  the  North  Side,  and  Gaunde- 
lesse  on  the  South,  and  a  narrow  shot  or  more  benethe 
they  meet  and  make  one  streame,  and  run  to  the  Este : 
and  ech  of  these  Rivers  hath  an  Hille  by  it.  So  that 
Bishops  Castelle  Akeland  standith  on  a  little  Hille 
bytwixt  2  great. 

"  There  was  of  very  auncient  a  Manor  Place  log- 
ging to  the  Bishop  of  Duresme  at  Akeland. 

"  Antonius  de  Beke  began  first  to  encastellate  it. 
He  made  the  great  Haulle.  Ther  be  divers  Pillors  of 
Blak  Marble  spekelid  with  White.  And  the  exceding 
fair  gret  Chaumbre  with  other  there. 

"  He  also  made  an  exceeding  goodly  Chapelle  ther 
of  Stone  welle  squarid,  and  a  College  with  Dene  and 


202       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

Prebendes  yn  it.     And  a  Quadrant  on  the  South  West 
side  of  the  Castell  for  Ministers  of  the  College. 

"Skerlaw,  Bishop  of  Duresme,  made  the  goodly 
Gate  House  at  entering  ynto  the  Castelle  of  Akelande. 
There  is  a  faire  Parke  by  the  Castelle  having  falow 
Dere,  wild  BuUes  and  Kin," 

The  words  used  by  "  that  famous  antiquary  John 
Leiland,"  in  his  "Itinerary  Begunne  about  1538," 
to  describe  the  castle  and  town,  give  the  best  possible 
idea  of  the  position  of  this  most  beautiful  episcopal 
residence.  At  what  precise  date  some  kind  of  build- 
ing was  first  to  be  found  on  the  "  little  Hille  bytwixt 
2  great "  we  do  not  know,  but  there  is  no  lack  of 
evidence  to  support  his  statement  that  there  was  a 
"  Manor  Place  "  here  "  of  very  auncient."  The  name 
indicates  the  original  character  of  Auckland — a  land 
of  oaks — doubtless  forming  part  of  the  great  forest  of 
Weardale.  About  a  mile  north  is  Binchester,  the 
undoubted  site  of  an  ancient  Roman  station ;  the 
Roman  Causey  crossed  the  Deor  Street  or  Forest  Way 
(as  the  Saxons  called  the  Roman  road  known  as  the 
Northern  Watling  Street),  just  below  North  or  Bishop's 
Auckland,  and  on  Toft  Hill  are  traces  of  ancient 
earthworks,  which  suggest  the  existence  of  some  kind 
of  stronghold,  some  fort  and  entrenchments,  even 
before  the  coming  of  the  Romans.  These  are  now  so 
broken  up  that  it  is  difficult  to  say  what  they  originally 
were,  but  Bailey,  writing  in  1779,  ^^'^'^  that  one  side 
of  the  camp  was  140  yards  in  length.  The  church 
of  St.  Andrew,  Auckland,  commonly  called  South 
Church,  contains  very  interesting  Anglo-Saxon  remains, 
portions  of  a  cross,  &c.,  which  probably  date  as  early 
as  700.  The  two  Aucklands  {Alckt  duas)  are 
mentioned  by  Symeon  of  Durham  as  part  of  the 
territory  of  St.  Cuthbert  not  restored  by  successive 
Northumberland    earls    after    being     mortgaged     by 


C     5 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  203 

Bishop  Aldhun  and  all  the  congregation  of  St.  Cuth- 
bert  to  "  Ethred  eorle,  et  Northman  eorle,  et  Uhtred 
eorle."  This  suggests  that  the  warlike  Northumber- 
land lords  set  a  high  value  on  this  hillside  settlement 
in  "  the  bishop's  high  forest  between  Tyne  and  Tees." 
According  to  the  same  authority  it  was  King  Canute 
who  procured  their  restoration  to  the  Church. 

We  cannot,  unfortunately,  go  to  Domesday  Book 
for  information  about  Auckland,  as  the  bishopric, 
being  a  palatinate,  was  omitted  from  the  survey,  and 
our  earliest  account  of  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  Boldon 
Buke,  a  survey  made  only  a  century  later,  for  Bishop 
Hugh  Pudsey,  in  11 83.  Though  this  contains  no 
direct  reference  to  a  mansion  at  Auckland,  the 
enumeration  of  services  due  by  the  tenants  here  and 
on  neighbouring  properties  suggests  that  Auckland 
and  Durham  ranked  even  then  together  as  the  chief 
residences  of  the  princely  bishops  of  Durham.  These 
services  themselves  furnish  us  with  an  attractive  picture 
of  the  half-pastoral,  half-forest  life  of  the  Auckland  of 
this  bygone  day,  when  the  bishops  of  the  mighty  pala- 
tinate were  warriors  and  statesmen  first,  and  church- 
men in  their  moments  of  relaxation  and  leisure.  It  is 
as  a  resort  at  such  moments  that  Boldon  Buke  presents 
Auckland  to  us  in  its  most  picturesque  aspect.  We 
have  the  services  to  be  performed  by  tenants  at  the 
bishop's  great  hunt,  and  certain  "  yolwayting  "  services, 
by  which  it  is  thought  some  form  of  castle  guard  at 
the  manor  in  which  the  bishop  spent  Christmas  is  to  be 
understood.  What  these  were  we  can  only  conjecture, 
but  as  it  seems  clear  that  they  must  have  represented 
some  sort  of  watch  at  Yuletide,  it  is  interesting  to  note 
that  they  are  incident  to  tenure  in  this  manor  only,  and 
are  not  to  be  found  anywhere  else  in  the  county.  In 
various  districts  the  services  of  tenants  include  the 
carting    of  corn,   wood,   wine,   &c.,   to  Durham    and 


204       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

Auckland,  and  all  the  villeins  of  Stanhope  were  bound 
to  carry  venison  to  Durham  and  Auckland,  which 
seems  to  point  to  regular  residence  by  the  bishop  at 
both  places  as  an  established  custom. 

The  great  hunt  or  big  autumn  battue  was  an  elabo- 
rately organised  affair.  For  a  time  the  bishop  and  his 
train  lived  in  the  forest  (to  whose  density  at  this  date 
we  have  the  testimony  of  a  reference  later  to  the 
roe  hunt  there),  and  it  must  have  taxed  the  resources 
of  the  country-side  to  provide  food  and  service  for 
them.  The  villeins  of  Auklandshire  had  to  find  on 
these  occasions  one  rope  for  each  oxgang  of  land  they 
held,  to  make  the  bishop's  hall  or  temporary  lodging 
in  the  forest,  of  the  length  of  60  feet  and  of  the  breadth 
within  the  posts  of  1 6  feet,  with  a  buttery  and  a  hatch, 
and  a  chamber  and  a  privy,  as  well  as  a  chapel  of  the 
length  of  40  feet  and  of  the  breadth  of  1 5  feet.  They 
had  also  to  make  their  part  of  the  fence  round  the 
lodges.  The  men  of  Stanhope  had  to  build  and  furnish 
the  kitchen,  larder,  and  kennel.  The  villeins  of  Auck- 
land had  on  the  departure  of  the  bishop  a  whole  tun 
of  beer,  or  a  half  one  if  it  remained  [if  he  remained 
away .?]  and  had  of  charity  two  shillings. 

The  winding  of  the  horn,  the  groups  of  brilliantly 
clad  huntsmen  making  their  way  through  the  glades 
of  the  autumn  forest,  these  are  the  thoughts  that  come 
uppermost  in  reading  this  record  of  life  in  twelfth- 
century  Auckland.  But  other  services  had  to  be  paid  : 
the  boon-days,  the  mowing,  the  making  of  the  hay,  the 
leading  it,  the  reaping,  the  carrying  of  the  corn,  the 
hens  and  eggs  to  be  rendered,  as  likewise  the  cow  in 
milk,  the  cartloads  of  wood,  the  toll  of  beer,  the  pay- 
ments of  cornage,  averpenny,  wheat,  &c.,  the  mill- 
stone to  be  found  for  the  mill,  fill  in  the  details  of  the 
life  pictured  for  us,  year  in,  year  out,  from  Yuletide  and 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  205 

its  "  yolwayting,"  to  Michaelmas,  and  its  equally  mys- 
terious Michelmath  dues,  and  back  again.  An  un- 
familiar sight  is  recalled  by  the  obligation  of  Elstan, 
the  "  dreng,"  to  find  four  oxen  to  cart  the  bishop's 
wine.  This  "dreng"  had  to  go  on  the  bishop's 
errands  between  Tyne  and  Tees  at  his  own  cost. 

The  great  hunt  did  not  exhaust  the  forest  obliga- 
tions of  the  villeins.  They  had  "  to  guard  the  asries 
of  the  hawks  which  are  in  the  district  of  Ralph  the 
Crafty,"  and,  with  the  farmers,  to  attend  the  roe  hunt 
at  the  summons  of  the  bishop. 

All  the  villeins  and  farmers  had  to  work  at  the 
mills  of  Auklandshire ;  and  we  are  reminded  of  what 
must  have  been  a  festive  occasion  for  the  whole  com- 
munity by  their  obligation  to  make  eighteen  booths  at 
the  fair  of  St.  Cuthbert.  Other  touches  are  added  to 
the  picture  by  the  mention  of  Luce  Makerell's  house 
near  the  orchard  of  the  lord  bishop,  and  of  the  Monk 
Cook's  land  within  and  without  the  park.  Bishop 
Pudsey's  grant  of  land  to  Monk  Cook  is  given  in  the 
Feodarimn  of  Durham  Priory,  and  mentions  three  acres 
within  the  Old  Park.  His  property  appears  again  in  a 
grant  of  Bishop  Philip  of  Poitou  (i  195-1208),  who 
granted  him  "  thirteen  acres  of  our  moor  at  Auckland 
between  Blindervelle  and  the  land  of  Robert  the 
Falconer,"  "  in  exchange  for  thirteen  acres  which  we 
have  included  in  our  park."  The  Old  Park  occurs 
again  in  a  deed  of  1248. 

It  was  not  until  Bishop  Anthony  Bek  that  any 
building  achievements  at  Auckland  were  considered 
worthy  of  record.  But  a  previous  building  of  very 
considerable  claim  to  dignity  may  well  have  sunk  into 
insignificance  before  the  "  sumptuous  "  erection  which 
Robert  de  Greystanes  attributes  to  this  powerful  prelate, 
whose  anxiety  to  possess  a  castellated  manor-house  may 


2o6       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

not  have  proceeded  merely  from  a  desire  to  find  em- 
ployment for  his  opulent  revenues.  It  is  curious  that 
Greystanes  does  not  use  any  term  suggestive  of  castella- 
tion  or  fortification,  and  that  we  have  no  contemporary 
authority  for  Leiland's  statement  that  Bek  encastel- 
lated  the  manor-house  ;  but  a  fortified  residence  may 
well  have  been  felt  to  be  desirable  by  one  who  had  to 
contend  with  his  sovereign  as  well  as  for  him,  who  had 
so  long  and  serious  a  quarrel  v/ith  the  prior,  and  whose 
duty,  as  bishop  palatine,  of  defending  the  bishopric, 
brought  him  into  conflict  with  its  sturdy  inhabitants, 
who  resented  as  an  infringement  of  their  rights  being 
called  to  serve  beyond  its  limits  against  the  Scots,  who 
were  threatening  to  overrun  them.  "  The  men  of  the 
franchise  of  Durham  between  Tyne  and  Tees  "  peti- 
tioned the  king  against  Bishop  Anthony  in  1302,  and 
must  have  made  out  a  good  case  against  the  ministers 
of  the  bishop  for  violation  of  ancient  rights  and 
customs  in  connection  with  the  "  pleas  of  the  forest  of 
Auckland,"  and  with  "  the  court  of  the  free  chase  of 
Auckland,"  for  they  were  promised  redress  as  to 
"  approvements  made  within  the  free  chase  and  with- 
out, to  the  grievous  hurt  of  the  said  good  folk,  who 
had  not  free  entry  or  outlet,  or  sufficient  pasture  for 
their  free  tenements,"  and  it  was  agreed  that  four  men 
chosen  by  the  bishop,  and  four  chosen  by  the  common- 
alty, should  settle  these  delicate  matters.  Such  disputes 
between  bishop  and  commonalty  were  common  enough 
at  this  time,  but  it  required  all  the  courage  of  the 
sturdy  Durham  folk  to  stand  up  against  their  powerful 
bishop.  The  woodlanders  may  have  had  the  support  of 
the  bishop's  enemy,  the  Prior  of  Durham,  who  in  1305 
charged  Bishop  Anthony  with  unjustly  preventing  the 
tenants  and  villeins  of  the  convent  from  taking  timber 
in  the  wood  of  Auckland. 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  207 

In  131 1,  the  year  following  Bishop  Bek's  death, 
1 20  acres  of  waste  land  in  the  Old  Park  of  Auckland 
were  acquired  by  John  de  Penreth ;  and  a  dispute  as 
to  the  tithes  of  the  Old  Park  is  recorded  in  1325. 
Deeds  of  this  period  refer  to  the  Wood  of  West 
Auckland,  the  moor  and  waste  of  West  Auckland, 
the  mills  of  West  Auckland,  the  mill  of  North 
Auckland,  and  the  fulling  mill  of  Auckland.  An 
indulgence  of  13 14  speaks  of  a  new  bridge  about  to 
be  rebuilt  over  the  Wear  at  Auckland  by  William 
Brak'  and  others. 

Bishop  Anthony's  munificence  had  not  been  con- 
fined to  the  beautifying  of  his  manor-house.  We  are 
reminded  of  another  element  in  Auckland  life  by  the 
fact  that  he  refounded  that  college  in  close  vicinity  to 
the  castle,  which  it  is  said  that  Bishop  Carileph  (1080- 
95)  had  instituted  at  St.  Andrews  to  receive  the 
secular  priests  turned  out  of  Durham.  This  collegiate 
establishment  was  charged  by  Bek  with  providing  for 
daily  service  in  the  manor-house  at  Auckland.  It 
appears  as  if  at  some  later  date  this  college  was 
removed  within  the  castle  walls,  perhaps  by  Bishop 
Boothe  (1457-80),  as  his  chancellor  mentions  "the 
new  college"  and  its  repairs,  and  Bishop  Fox  (1494- 
1528)  constitutes  a  sacrist  "in  the  collegiate  chapel 
within  the  manor-house  "  ;  and  so  it  came  to  have  its 
"  quadrant  on  the  south-west  side  of  the  castle  "  as 
Leiland  tells  us. 

We  have  to  wait  until  the  episcopate  of  Richard  de 
Bury  before  we  can  glean  any  information  as  to  the 
details  of  the  "  sumptuous "  structure  whose  sur- 
roundings it  has  been  possible  in  this  fashion  to  re- 
construct. But  before  that  date  opportunities  are 
vouchsafed  to  the  historic  imagination  of  calling 
up  scenes  very  characteristic  of  the   princely   bishops 


2o8       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

whose  magnificence  had  a  worthy  setting  in  the  stately 
pile. 

In  1209  and  1310  King  John  visited  the  castle. 
In  131 1  an  act  of  Bishop  Kellawe  upon  his  citation 
to  the  council  of  Pope  Clement  VI.  was  dated  from 
the  chamber^  of  the  lord  bishop  in  his  manor  of 
Auckland,  and  in  the  following  year  the  same  chamber 
witnessed  the  sending  forth  of  a  challenge  by  him  to 
all  persons  to  contest  his  rights  if  they  had  any  claim 
so  to  do.  That  year  Robert  Bruce  was  wasting  the 
bishopric,  and  a  letter  from  Bishop  Kellawe  to  the 
Bishop  of  St.  Andrews  on  23rd  May  131 3  men- 
tioned that  certain  ambassadors  to  Scotland  from 
Pope  Clement  VI.  and  Philip,  King  of  France,  had 
been  entertained  at  Auckland  by  him.  The  ravaging 
of  the  north  by  the  Scots  brought  King  Edward  III. 
and  Philippa  his  queen  to  the  castle  in  1335  and  1336, 
when  they  were  the  guests  of  the  courtly  and  scholarly 
Richard  de  Bury,  formerly  the  king's  tutor,  and  the 
friend  of  the  poet  Petrarch,  whose  acquaintance  had 
been  made  by  the  bishop  on  one  of  his  many  embassies 
to  the  Continent.  The  steward's  accounts  show  him 
to  have  spent  only  five  weeks  at  Auckland  in  1335,  but 
to  have  expended  much  on  hospitality  then. 

Very  pleasant  associations  are  evoked  by  the  name 
of  this  lover  of  books,  who  surrounded  himself  with 
transcribers  and  illuminators,  and  whose  munificence 
to  the  Auckland  poor  must  have  made  him  a  welcome 
visitor  to  his  castle.  He  distributed  five  marks  to 
them  whenever  he  travelled  between  Durham  and 
Auckland.  In  spite  of  truces  this  bishop  must  have 
lived  in  continual  expectation  of  a  Scottish  invasion 
until  his  death  took  place  here  on  24th  April  1345. 

^  Raine  in  his  history  points  out  that  chamber  frequently  means  a  whole  suite 
of  apartments  :  we  should  therefore  think  of  the  bishop's  sqite  and  king's  suit?. 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  209 

It  was  the  battle  of  Neville's  Cross,  fought  in  the 
following  year  (17th  October  1346),  on  the  Red  Hills 
near  Durham,  where  King  David  and  most  of  the 
Scottish  nobility  were  taken  prisoner,  that  put  an  end 
to  their  ravaging  for  many  years.  A  letter  from  the 
prior  and  convent  of  Durham  to  the  bishop,  Thomas 
Hatfield,  at  that  date,  gives  a  dramatic  account  of  the 
whole  English  army,  under  the  Archbishop  of  York 
and  other  magnates  (the  prior  does  not  deign  to 
mention  by  name  any  magnate  but  his  archbishop), 
"  assembling  secretly  in  your  park  of  Auckland,"  where 
they  spent  the  night  preceding  the  battle,  the  Scotch 
having  taken  up  their  quarters  at  the  prior's  summer 
residence.  Bear  Park,  three  miles  off.  Though  absent 
at  this  critical  moment,  we  have  the  evidence  of  a  deed 
"  datum  in  castro  nostro  de  Aukland  viij  die  mensis 
Martii  anno  domini  Millesimo  cccxlvto  et  pontificatus 
nostri  primo,"  ^  to  show  that  Bishop  Hatfield  had 
already  been  in  residence  earlier  in  the  year.  This  is 
the  earliest  use  of  the  word  castle  as  applied  to  Auck- 
land in  such  a  deed. 

It  is  from  a  bailifFs  roll  of  the  manor  for  1337, 
the  fifth  year  of  Richard  de  Bury's  episcopate,  the 
earliest  bailiff's  roll  now  in  existence  for  any  of  the 
manors  of  the  see,  that  we  obtain  our  first  information 
as  to  domestic  details  in  the  castle.  It  contains  a 
valuable  account  of  repairs  and  work  done  here,  as 
does  also  another  bailiff's  roll  for  1350,  the  fifth  year 
of  Bishop  Hatfield's  episcopate.  Both  these  interesting 
documents  have  been  printed  by  the  Surtees  Society 
in  the  same  volume  as  the  survey  made  during  the 
episcopate  of  Bishop  Hatfield  (1345-81),  from  which 
additional  information  as  to  holders  of  land,  tenant 

^  In  a  confirmation  made  by  Bishop  Neville,  1445,  of  charters  belonging 
to  Keyper  Hospital  we  find  this  grant  included.     (Surtees  Soc,  1895,  p.  208.) 

O 


2IO       EPISCOPAL   PALACES  OF   YORK 


services  rendered,  &c.,  can  be  obtained,  and  a  transla- 
tion of  them  and  of  later  rolls  is  to  be  found  in  Raine's 
History  of  Auckland  Castle.  From  the  bailiff's  rolls, 
besides  much  miscellaneous  expenditure  on  walls  and 
windows,  gutters  and  roofs,  we  can  extract  precious 
elements  of  the  human  drama,  perceive  some  traces  of 
the  humbler  human  lives  whose  centre  was  the  great 
castle.  The  ravages  of  the  Great  Plague  are  to  be  felt 
in  its  effects  on  the  customs  and  services  due  from 
tenants,  the  value  of  whose  labour  was  no  longer 
represented  at  the  later  date  by  the  money  payments 
for  which  these  had  been  previously  commuted.  And 
yet  in  the  autumn  of  1 350  the  bailiff  of  the  lord  bishop 
apparently  managed  to  exact  many  services  from  them 
at  the  old  rate,  though  in  some  instances  even  he  failed 
to  do  so.  There  was  no  open  rebellion  of  the  peasants 
here,  but  it  may  well  be  believed  that  tenants  who  did 
not  dare  to  defy  the  authority  of  the  bishop's  bailiff 
would  have  been  glad  enough  to  evade  it,  and  early  in 
the  year  there  occurs  an  entry  which  shows  that,  whether 
from  this  cause,  or  from  fear  of  the  plague,  certain 
tenants  had  tried  to  flee  from  the  land  of  the  lord  bishop 
and  go  elsewhere.  "  From  wickedness  and  from  malice 
aforethought  they  gave  in  the  iron  shoes  of  their 
ploughs  at  Auckland  on  Thursday  next  before  the 
Feast  of  Pentecost.  For  which  cause  they  were  arrested 
and  imprisoned  at  Durham  till  Saturday  the  night  of 
Trinity."  A  whole  world  of  speculation  is  opened  up 
by  the  laconic  statement. 

The  accounts  of  Peter  de  Midrigge,  Bishop  Bury's 
bailiff  in  1337,  give  the  cost  of  repairs  to  the  steward's 
room  and  the  hall,  the  great  chapel  and  little  chapel, 
the  lord's  (bishop's)  room,  the  turret,  the  yard  by  the 
old  bakehouse  (this  to  be  "  plastered  against  the  coming 
of  the  lord  "),  the  granary,  the  long  stable,  the  great 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  211 

stable,  the  candle-house,  the  king's  room,  the  gable  of 
the  king's  room,  the  brew-house,  and  the  salt-house ; 
for  making  a  chimney  in  the  turret,  and  repairing  the 
chimney  in  the  lord's  room  ;  for  mending  the  lock  of 
the  great  gateway;  for  plastering  the  yard  at  the  eastern 
gate ;  for  mending  the  great  stone  wall  at  the  west  of 
the  manor,  and  the  stone  wall  behind  the  grange  ;  for 
making  a  hedge  garden  (gardinum  de  hayd)  within  the 
court  next  the  brew-house.  The  charges  for  window 
mending  are  interesting.  We  have  the  expenses  for 
mending  the  glass  windows  of  the  great  chapel  against 
Christmas  ;  for  plastering  the  windows  of  the  kitchen  ; 
for  three  ells  of  canvas  bought  for  the  glass  window  in 
the  gable  of  the  hall  against  Christmas ;  for  one  ell  of 
canvas  bought  for  the  window  of  the  chamber  over 
the  gateway;  and  Walter  the  glazier  is  paid  for  mend- 
ing the  glass  windows  in  the  gable  of  the  hall.  Very 
numerous  and  costly  are  the  entries  in  connection  with 
the  kitchen,  and  as  these  include  two  fir  trees  for 
scaffolding,  the  early  fourteenth-century  shafts  to  be 
seen  in  the  kitchen  at  this  day  in  all  probability  form 
part  of  an  apartment  for  whose  building  we  have  the 
accounts  actually  here  before  us.  Outside,  two  carpen- 
ters are  paid  for  two  weeks'  work  at  mending  two 
bridges  in  the  park,  the  bridges  of  Coundonnburn  and 
Eggisclyffburn,  and  a  considerable  sum  is  spent  also 
on  the  park  palings  and  enclosures,  mention  being  made 
of  the  close  under  the  hall.  It  is  noticeable  that  this 
bailiff  speaks  of  the  manor  or  hall,  not  of  the  castle. 

Roger  de  Tikhill,  Bishop  Hatfield's  bailiff  in  1350, 
mentions  the  orchard  under  the  castle,  and  the  orchard 
near  the  Gaunless;  though  the  steward  in  1337  had 
declared  he  had  no  fruit  to  account  for,  there  being 
then  neither  fruit  nor  tree.  In  addition  to  the  lord's 
room,  the  chapel,  the  king's  room,  and  other  previously 


212       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

mentioned  rooms,  he  refers  to  the  great  grange,  to  the 
chamber  at  the  east  gate,  the  room  at  the  end  of  the 
hall,  and  the  chamber  over  the  south  gate.  A  stone 
window  is  to  be  made  in  the  western  part  of  the  hall, 
bars  of  iron  supplied  for  it,  and  also  glass  windows  for 
it  and  all  the  other  windows  of  the  hall. 

We  do  not  know  in  what  year  of  Bishop  Hat- 
field's episcopate  his  survey  of  the  bishopric  was  made, 
but  the  copy  which  survives  was  apparently  transcribed 
in  1 38 1,  the  year  after  his  death,  as  it  contains  a 
reference  to  the  halmote  court  held  at  Auckland 
manor  in  the  previous  year.  It  mentions  the  nether 
orchard  on  the  bank  under  the  castle  wall  on  the 
southern  side,  and  a  plot  acquired  for  enlarging  the 
great  garden  of  the  lord  bishop.  Among  meadow 
names  it  gives  the  Leyes,  Hallmedow,  and  the  Stile  ; 
it  refers  to  nine  acres  at  Gaytbrigg  and  four  at  Brakes- 
bank,  and  four  at  the  eastern  gate  reserved  for  game. 
There  is  a  reference  to  a  parcel  of  the  park  opposite 
the  Burnemilne.  It  contains  the  same  regulations  as 
to  forest  services,  the  construction  of  the  bishop's 
lodging  at  the  great  hunt,  &c.,  as  Boldon  Buke;  but 
"the  ward  of  Auckland"  is  substituted  for  "the 
district  of  Ralph  the  Crafty  "  in  the  directions  as  to 
the  asries  of  the  hawks.  Roger  de  Tikhill's  accounts 
show  a  large  sum  to  have  been  spent  on  building 
a  stone  wall  round  the  park,  and  for  making  340 
roods  of  ditch  round  the  meadows  within  the  park, 
with  "  ryles  "  from  the  lord's  wood  to  complete  the  said 
work :  a  memorandum  states  that  he  is  bound  to  com- 
plete the  whole  enclosure  of  the  park. 

Another  chamber  in  the  castle  mentioned  by  name 
at  a  later  date,  is  the  inner  chamber  in  which  Cardinal 
Langley's  death  is  recorded  in  1437.  His  accounts 
show  that  some  repairs  were  executed  by  him,  but  these 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  213 

do  not  seem  to  have  been  important.  They  contain  a 
reference  to  the  postern  gate  opening  on  to  the  highway 
on  the  south  side  of  the  chapel,  and  to  a  passage  ex- 
tending from  the  "  parlour "  to  the  east  end  of  the 
chapel.  This  "  parlour  "  was  mentioned  in  the  accounts 
of  the  clerk  of  the  works  for  1378,  when  a  reference 
also  occurs  to  "  my  lord's  chamber  on  the  north  of  the 
small  garden  within  the  manor-house."  The  accounts 
for  1387  give  the  cost  of  a  new  under  frame  for  my 
lord's  chamber,  and  of  many  repairs  to  outbuildings. 

Building  operations  at  the  castle  were  on  certain 
occasions  on  a  sufficiently  magnificent  scale  to  deserve 
special  recognition  by  the  Durham  chroniclers.  We 
are  told  of  Bishop  Walter  Skirlaw  (i 388-1405)  that 
he  "  built  the  bridge  of  Auckland  ;  he  also  erected  the 
great  stone  gates  at  Auckland  from  the  foundation  to 
the  summit  of  the  same  building  at  his  own  expense." 
Of  Bishop  Lawrence  Boothe  (1457-76)  we  hear 
that  he  "  built  all  the  stone  gates  of  the  college  at 
Auckland  and  all  the  other  buildings  annexed  to  the 
gateway  on  both  sides  at  his  own  expense."  Building 
seems  sometimes  to  have  been  used  in  the  sense  of 
repairing  by  historians  of  the  castle. 

Wars  and  rumours  of  wars  filled  the  latter  end 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  the  castle's  history  must 
have  been  as  distressful  and  calamitous  as  might  be 
expected  at  such  a  period  if  we  are  to  believe  a  letter 
of  1484  printed  in  Rymer's  Fcedera^  and  not  regard  it 
as  a  mere  piling  up  of  excuses.  It  is  written  by 
Richard  III.  to  the  Pope  at  his  appointment  of 
John  Sherwood  as  bishop,  and  pleads  for  an  abate- 
ment of  the  fees  payable  by  the  bishop  at  Rome  upon 
his  elevation,  on  the  ground  that  in  the  bishopric  he 
had  so  many  castles  and  other  places  to  maintain  at 
his  own  expense,  especially  in  the  present  most  grievous 


214       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

war  with  the  most  fierce  and  hard  nation  of  the  Scots. 
The  letter  states  that  the  castles  and  towns  belonging 
to  the  Church  at  Durham  were  in  so  ruinous  a  con- 
dition, partly  through  the  negligence  of  preceding 
bishops  and  partly  through  the  devastation  committed 
by  the  Scots,  that  the  revenues  of  several  years  would 
not  suffice  to  restore  them.  Any  attempts  this  bishop 
may  have  made  at  restoring  them  do  not  appear  to 
have  been  considered  worthy  of  remark.  But  Bishop 
Fox  ( 1 494-1 501),  in  spite  of  the  active  part  he  was 
forced,  as  bishop,  to  take  in  arraying  the  county 
against  a  threatened  invasion  of  the  Scots,  and  of  his 
activity  in  diplomatic  service  to  his  sovereign,  is  said 
to  have  enclosed  the  deer  park. 

It  was  Bishop  Ruthall  who  finally  took  in  hand  the 
repairs  that  seem  to  have  been  so  urgently  needed,  and 
who  started  the  building  of  a  great  dining-hall  which 
he  did  not  live  to  complete.  A  delightfully  homely 
picture  of  his  life  at  Auckland  is  suggested  by  a  few 
chance  words  we  have  from  his  pen  in  the  course 
of  very  eloquent  protestations  to  Wolsey  as  to  the 
cost  of  "  refreshing  his  ruynous  howses "  in  the 
county.  In  spite  of  his  great  wealth,  all  his  groans 
seem  by  no  means  uncalled  for,  in  view  of  the  heavy 
burden  of  hospitality  he  shows  himself  charged  with, 
and  when  it  is  remembered  what  his  activity  in 
arraying  the  county,  putting  its  defences  into  good 
order,  and  in  providing  men-at-arms  when  he  accom- 
panied the  king  to  France,  must  have  cost  him. 

Writing  from  Auckland  to  Wolsey  on  24th 
October  15 13,  a  month  after  Flodden  Field,  as  to 
the  re-edifying  and  strengthening  of  Norham  Castle, 
he  says  :  "  But,  Maister  Almoner,  the  hospitalitie  of 
this  countray  agrethe  not  with  the  building  of  so  great 
a  worke ;    for  that  I  spend   here   would  make  many 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  215 

towris  and  refreshe  my  ruynous  howses,  the  lyke 
wherof  I  trow  never  Cristenman  lokyd  on,  onlesse  they 
had  be  pullyd  down  by  men  of  warre."  He  assures 
Wolsey  that  he  will  return  hither  after  he  has  seen  the 
king,  "if  the  wars  continue  here,  and  if  it  be  his 
pleasure."  And  from  attendance  on  his  Majesty  we 
drop  to  the  expenses  of  housekeeping  at  the  castle, 
and  the  consumption  of  wine  there  is  dilated  on  for 
sympathy.  Eight  tuns  of  wine  had  he  brought  with 
him,  "  and,  our  Lord  be  thankyd,  I  have  not  two 
tunne  left  at  this  howre.  And  this  is  fair  utterance  in 
two  monethys.  And  schame  it  is  to  say  how  many 
befis  and  motons  have  ben  spent  in  my  hows  sens  my 
cummyng,  besides  other  fresh  acats,  whete,  malt,  fysche, 
and  such  bagages.  On  my  faith  ye  wold  marvayle." 
Had  not  his  fortunes  been  "  somewhat  stored  before," 
frugal  man,  he  "would  have  been  much  behind;  for 
three  hundred  persons  some  day  is  a  small  number, 
and  sometimes  sixty  or  eighty  beggars  at  the  gate." 
"  And  this  is  the  way  to  keep  a  poore  man  in  state." 

Ruthall  is  accused  of  having  been  avaricious.  It 
is  said  that  on  one  occasion  he  sent  in  to  King  Henry 
Vin.  accounts  dealing  with  his  own  estates  in  mistake 
for  certain  accounts  of  his  Majesty's  realm,  and  that 
Wolsey,  who  was  aware  of  the  mistake,  handed  the 
wrong  documents  in  to  the  king  with  the  laughing 
comment  that  these,  if  they  did  not  show  him  what 
he  wanted,  would  at  least  tell  him  where  to  go  for 
what  he  did  want.  The  bishop  is  said  to  have  been 
ill  with  chagrin  at  having  the  extent  of  his  possessions 
thus  exposed.  It  is  perhaps  not  unreasonable  to 
imagine  that  so  intimate  a  knowledge  of  the  state  of 
his  wine  cellar  at  Auckland  as  he  displayed,  may  not 
have  been  unconnected  with  some  tendency  to  parsi- 
mony on  his  part,  but  it  must  be  remembered  what 


2i6       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

point  would  be  given  to  the  jest  of  my  Lord  Almoner 
with  his  sovereign  by  the  fact  that  the  exposure  was 
made  to  very  covetous  eyes  indeed. 

Ruthall's  building  operations  at  the  castle  are  the 
subject  of  some  illuminating  correspondence  published 
in  the  Letters  and  Papers  of  King  Henry  VIII.  In 
August  1 5 19  we  find  Thomas  Strangways,  who  filled 
the  post  of  comptroller  of  the  bishop's  household, 
protesting  to  the  bishop  that  "  there  was  never  so  great 
works  so  sumptuously  and  curiously  wrought  in  so 
many  parts  within  all  the  king's  realm  with  so  little 
money  as  I  have  demanded."  After  Ruthall's  death, 
Wolsey,  whose  tenure  of  the  see  from  1523  to  1529 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  accompanied  by  any 
expenditure  on  the  castle,  appears  to  have  deprived 
Thomas  Strangways  of  even  the  money  assigned  to 
him  by  Bishop  Ruthall  as  legitimately  due  to  him  for 
his  services.  In  1530  we  have  the  comptroller's  angry 
complaints  against  Wolsey  concerning  the  wardship  of 
one  George  Bowys,  which  had  been  bequeathed  by  the 
late  bishop  to  Strangways  "  in  reward  for  his  labour 
and  expense  on  the  repairs  at  Auckland,"  in  another 
document  described  as  "  eight  years'  service  done  to 
the  bishop  without  fee  or  reward."  Strangways  states 
that  Wolsey  had  demanded  the  wardship  from  him  in 
return  for  a  payment  of  ^600.  Echoes  of  Wolsey's 
might  and  power  come  down  to  us  in  Strangway's 
confession  that  he  had  not  dared  to  refuse  him,  though 
it  was  worth  much  more  than  ;^iooo.  But  when  even 
the  meagre  £600  was  withheld,  the  unfortunate  man 
was  reduced  to  making  suit  for  its  recovery,  and  it  is 
to  this  we  owe  the  survival  of  all  documents  connected 
with  the  affair.  Many  heartburnings  must  have  gone 
into  the  erection  of  the  great  dining-hall,  whose 
magnificent   bay  window    or    oriel    forms  a  principal 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  217 

feature  of  the  eastern  front.  Its  upper  part  was  com- 
pleted by  Bishop  Tunstall  (1530-58),  the  impaled 
arms  of  the  two  bishops  and  of  the  see  being  an 
important  part  of  the  rich  decorations  of  the  great 
window.  Perhaps  we  have  in  this  correspondence  of 
Strangways  some  explanation  of  the  statement  made 
by  Tunstall  in  his  will,  that  he  found  the  houses 
belonging  to  the  bishopric  in  such  a  state  of  disrepair 
that  he  "  had  not  a  house  at  his  first  coming  to  lie  dry 
in,"  "  and  by  great  art  and  labour "  repaired  them, 
his  accounts  showing  that  he  lost  no  time  in  doing 
this  at  Auckland,  ;/^42,  3s.  4d.  for  repairs  occurring  in 
the  roll  of  the  clerk  of  the  works  in  1531. 

The  great  breach  with  Rome  was  not  accomplished 
without  outspoken  resentment  on  the  part  of  the 
bishopric  (or  county)  of  Durham.  Bishop  Tunstall, 
the  friend  of  Erasmus,  and  himself  so  learned  that 
Godwin  says  of  him  "  that  there  was  scarce  any  kind 
of  learning  in  which  he  was  not  excellent,"  had  the 
courage  even  to  protest  against  Henry's  assumption  of 
the  title  of  supreme  head,  and  to  urge  that  it  might  be 
perverted  to  scandalous  meanings.  Few  men  can  have 
experienced  more  of  the  chances  and  changes  of  for- 
tune than  were  to  be  the  lot  of  this  highly  esteemed 
bishop  as  the  pendulum  swung  from  one  extreme  to 
the  other  in  the  ensuing  years.  It  is  the  comment  of 
the  historian  Hutchinson,  in  describing  at  a  later  date 
the  stripping  of  the  bishops  of  the  see  of  their  greatest 
palatine  honours,  that  by  that  time  Tunstall  had 
probably  been  disciplined  by  the  tyrant  into  passive 
obedience.  Of  the  methods  pursued  by  the  tyrant's 
instruments  Auckland  was  to  witness  an  example,  and 
in  the  Letters  and  Papers  a  description  survives  of  a 
hasty  and  secret  but  thoroughgoing  search  to  which 
the  castle  was  subjected  in  his  absence,  in  May  1532. 


21 8       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

It  is  impossible  even  at  this  day  to  read  without  indig- 
nation of  the  ransacking  scenes  which  the  old  walls 
must  have  witnessed  at  the  hands  of  those  who  were 
all  eagerness  to  please  his  Majesty  or  his  subservient 
tool  Cromwell.  On  2nd  May  1532  the  Earls  of 
Westmoreland  and  Cumberland  and  Sir  Thomas 
Clifford  wrote  to  Cromwell  that  on  receipt  of  the 
king's  letters  they  had  repaired  without  delay  to  the 
house  of  the  bishop  at  Auckland,  where  his  chief 
abode  was,  and  where  most  of  his  substance  lay. 
Their  letter  tells  him  how  secretly  they  proceeded, 
taking  from  the  chancellor,  surveyor,  and  Dr.  Ridley 
the  keys  of  the  bishop's  lodgings  and  studies,  which 
they  rigorously  searched.  They  are  profuse  in  lamen- 
tations because  they  found  but  little  household  stuff 
or  writing  of  importance,  at  which  they  marvel  in  so 
studious  a  man.  They  think  he  must  have  been  "  pre- 
vented "  long  ago.  The  disappointment  at  not  unearth- 
ing portable  property  of  value  is  a  sinister  touch. 

Four  years  later  another  letter  to  Cromwell,  this 
time  from  Thomas  Legh,  whose  methods  at  the  visi- 
tation of  the  monasteries,  prior  to  their  dissolution, 
gained  him  so  unenviable  a  reputation,  shows  that  the 
bishop  had  been  constrained  to  put  in  practice  the 
wisdom  of  making  friends  with  the  mammon  of  un- 
righteousness. Bribe-taking,  even  bribe-taking  to  ex- 
cess, is  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  unspeakable  Dr.  Legh, 
so  the  bishop's  largesse  must  have  been  generous  indeed 
to  call  forth  so  unctuous  a  letter  from  such  a  source. 
Of  the  scenes  by  which  the  passing  of  the  old  order  was 
accompanied  at  Auckland  the  letter  affords  also  a  valu- 
able example.  It  was  written  on  26th  January  1536, 
and  informs  Cromwell:  "It  would  be  long  to  tell  you  the 
gentle  and  lowly  entertainment  of  the  Bishop  of  Durham, 
meeting  us  at  our  entry  into  his  diocese  three  or  four 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  219 

miles  from  his  house  [Auckland  Castle],  with  a  great 
company  of  his  servants,  and  on  our  leaving  him,  con- 
ducting us  from  Auckland  more  than  half  the  way  to 
Durham  Abbey.  Both  we,  our  servants,  and  our  com- 
pany had  large  rewards,  thus  setting  an  example  to  the 
people,  and  especially  the  abbots,  of  their  duty  towards 
their  prince,  and  how  they  ought  to  accept  him  as 
their  Supreme  Head." 

The  most  respected  of  the  bishops  at  this  dread 
time  might  find  he  had  no  alternative  but  to  promote 
the  very  measures  against  whose  adoption  he  had 
previously  protested,  but  there  were  others  in  the 
bishopric  of  a  more  stubborn  disposition.  The  Pil- 
grimage of  Grace  had  many  sympathisers  in  Durham, 
and  Auckland  had  witnessed  a  very  considerable 
mustering  of  rebels  in  the  course  of  Bigod's  Re- 
bellion, which  took  place  earlier  in  the  same  month 
of  January  1536.  George  Lumley,  son  and  heir  of 
Lord  Lumley,  was  among  those  who  joined  Bigod's 
enterprise,  and  it  is  from  his  evidence,  given  when 
he  was  a  prisoner  under  examination  in  the  Tower, 
that  we  learn  what  took  place.  He  says  that  he 
and  his  father  had  fled  to  Newcastle  because  they  had 
heard  the  commons  were  up,  that  the  bishop  had 
fled  from  Auckland  at  midnight,  and  that  it  would 
be  best  for  them  to  get  into  some  safe  place  ;  from 
Newcastle  he  seems  to  have  been  recalled  by  hearing 
that  his  father's  goods  would  be  spoiled  unless  he 
went  to  Lord  Latimer.  Alarmed  for  the  safety  of 
his  father's  property,  the  younger  man  repaired 
to  Lord  Latimer,  whom  he  found  at  Auckland, 
with  eight  or  ten  thousand  men  mustering  before 
the  bishop's  house.  Lord  Latimer  asked  him  to  send 
word  to  his  father  to  "  come  in,"  and  gave  him  the 
oath.     We   learn   also   that   "  Sir   James   Strangwishe, 


220       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

young  Bowes,  Sir  Ralph  Bowmer,  and  another  knight 
that  married  with  and  dwells  nigh  Lord  Latimer, 
came  in  with  companies."  Asked  as  to  the  causes  of 
the  insurrection,  he  declared  them  to  be  the  pulling 
down  of  abbeys  and  reports  of  taxes  on  christenings 
and  weddings,  and  "  that  no  poor  man  should  eat 
white  bread."  He  adds  that  "  a  tall,  lusty  man " 
had  said  at  this  muster  at  Auckland  :  "  I  hear  say 
that  the  king  doth  cry  eighteenpence  a  day,  and  I 
trust  that  we  shall  have  as  many  men  for  eightpence 
a  day,"  and  that  he  thinks  this  was  the  Abbot  of 
Jervaulx  ;  his  chaplain  carried  bow  and  arrows. 

Whatever  example  the  bishop  might  set  "  to  the 
people,  and  especially  the  abbots,  of  their  duty  towards 
their  prince,"  it  had  not  been  humanly  possible  to 
repress  altogether  some  explosion  of  resentment  felt 
by  "commons"  and  priests  alike  at  the  suppression 
of  the  monasteries.  But  the  Abbot  of  Jervaulx  was 
one  of  the  first  to  expiate  his  contumacy  with  the  loss 
of  his  head,  and  a  whole  batch  of  rebels  were  hanged 
at  Durham.  The  royal  vengeance  was  very  terrible, 
and  crushed  out  the  embers  of  revolt  quickly.  The 
doom  of  the  abbeys  was  sealed.  The  stables  at  Auck- 
land ^  would  not  henceforth  be  called  upon  to  accom- 
modate the  twenty  horses  and  more  required  to  convey 
the  retinue  of  servants  that  accompanied  the  prior  on 
his  visits  to  the  castle.  Its  floors  were  no  longer  to  be 
trodden  by  the  sandals  of  monkish  visitors.  It  was 
no  longer  to  witness  the  comings  and  goings  of  the 
priests  from  the  college  within  its  gates,  which  now 
became  the  property  of  the  bishops,  after  falling  into 

1  See  Dui-ham  Household  Book  (Surtees  Soc),  Bursar's  Accounts,  p.  12  ; 
the  prior's  expenses  at  Auckland  (Feb.  1530-31)  with  20  horses,  17  servants, 
and  2  chaplains,  for  one  night :  p.  245 ;  the  prior's  expenses  at  Auckland  with 
16  horses,  and  again  with  18  horses  (1533-34):  p.  244;  "my"  expenses  at 
Auckland,  and  for  8  brethren  (novices)  for  ordination,  with  20  horses. 


AUCKLAND    CASTLE  221 

the  hands  of  the  king.  Tunstall  was  appointed  to 
preside  over  the  Council  of  the  North,  which  carried 
out  the  dismantling  of  the  monasteries,  administered 
justice,  and  looked  to  the  defences  of  the  county. 
Many  military  and  judicial  consultations  must  have 
taken  place  under  his  roof.  It  sheltered  the  great 
bishop  as  he  received  blow  after  blow  from  King 
Henry ;  until  the  bishopric  was  suppressed  under  the 
boy  icing,  Edward ;  again,  after  his  restoration  to 
favour  under  Queen  Mary,  whose  orders  to  levy 
forces  for  the  borders,  especially  horses,  we  find 
him  informing  her  he  had  already  anticipated,  in  a 
letter  dated  here  7th  August  1559;  and  witnessed 
the  final  rebuff  reserved  for  his  extreme  old  age — 
Elizabeth's  intimation  that  she  would  have  no  use 
for  his  services.  No  successor  of  his,  not  even  in 
the  bitter  days  of  the  Civil  War,  could  ever  again 
witness  quite  such  violent  revolutions  of  fortune's 
wheel  as  Cuthbert  Tunstall.  During  his  tenure  of 
the  see  he  contributed  a  great  porch  and  scullery  to 
the  castle,  as  well  as  his  share  in  the  completion  of  the 
dining-room  ;  and  is  said  to  have  built  for  the  recep- 
tion of  Scottish  prisoners  or  hostages  that  part  of  the 
building  known  as  "  Scotland."  He  put  the  castle  into 
a  general  state  of  repair,  according  to  the  chronicler. 

The  Elizabethan  bishops  had  the  same  difficulties 
to  deal  with  at  Auckland  as  their  contemporaries 
throughout  the  kingdom — hindrances  to  religion  in 
the  diocese,  obstinate  recusants,  and  the  queen's  in- 
satiable demands  upon  Church  property.  To  content 
her  Majesty  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  to  avoid 
rousing  the  ill-will  of  neighbours  from  whom  contri- 
butions had  to  be  procured  for  the  defences  of  the 
county,  or  a  measure  of  conformity  they  were  in  no 
wise  inclined  to  give,  must  at  times  have  made  life  at 


222       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF  YORK 

Auckland  somewhat  harassing.  Bishop  Barnes,  who 
died  at  Auckland  24th  August  1587,  after  having 
"  always  chiefly  resided  there,"  in  a  letter  to  the  all- 
powerful  Burleigh  of  iith  February  1575/6,  com- 
plained to  him  that  the  "  stubborn  churlish  people  of 
the  county  of  Durham  defaced  him  by  all  slanders, 
false  reports,  and  shameless  lies."  Bishop  Hutton, 
in  January  1594/5,  declares  that  he  would  rather 
"give  up  his  post  and  live  a  private  life,  where  he 
would  have  little  to  do  but  pray  for  the  queen's  most 
excellent  majesty,"  than  comply  with  her  wishes  con- 
cerning a  certain  lease.  Bishop  Matthew  takes  up 
the  cudgels  for  his  bishopric  in  1596,  and  protests 
that  "  no  county  in  the  north  is  so  charged  with  service 
as  the  small  handful  of  the  bishopric  of  Durham." 
In  a  letter  to  Secretary  Cecil,  of  1601,  he  laments  that 
"  there  has  been  great  unkindness  between  the  chief 
commanders  in  these  parts,"  and  seems  to  have  found 
great  comfort  in  the  company  of  one  John  Gibson, 
who  has  just  paid  him  a  few  days'  visit  at  Auckland, 
because  Gibson  appears  to  be  more  ready  and  glad  to 
be  employed  by  Cecil  than  the  inhabitants  of  the 
bishopric.  We  hear  of  a  court  held  by  the  chancellor 
upon  a  stone  in  the  courtyard  of  the  castle  in  1579,  of 
institutions  by  the  bishop  in  "  le  dyning  chambre  "  in 
1584,  and  can  thus  localise  happenings  of  regular 
occurrence ;  but  it  is  perhaps  not  unnatural  that  at 
this  time  there  is  nothing  to  tell  of  great  occasions  or 
of  extensive  building  operations  at  the  castle. 

The  seventeenth  century,  however,  was  an  eventful 
one  in  its  story.  In  1625  the  Court  of  High  Com- 
mission began  to  hold,  "in  an  upper  chamber  in  the 
manor-house  of  Auckland,"  those  trials  of  ecclesiastical 
causes  which  were  to  contribute  in  so  lamentable  a 
degree    to    the    exasperation    that    culminated   in    the 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  223 

Civil  War.  Before  the  great  explosion  took  place,  the 
magnificent  old  building  enjoyed  one  final  scene  of 
splendid  ceremony  in  1633,  when  Bishop  Morton 
entertained  King  Charles  L  on  the  occasion  of  his 
visit  to  Scotland  to  receive  his  crown  and  hold  a 
Parliament  in  a  manner  befitting  so  dignified  a  mission. 
Hutchinson  says  that  the  bishop's  sumptuous  enter- 
tainment of  the  king  cost  him  ^1500  a  day.  The 
great  edifice  must  have  been  in  every  way  set  in  order 
and  prepared  to  be  worthy  of  its  royal  guest,  as  Bishop 
Neile  (161 7— 31)  had  spent  nearly  ^^ 3000  upon  it  in 
repairs.  Of  the  state  kept  up  on  all  occasions  by 
Bishop  Morton  we  have  several  notices.  He  is  said  to 
have  brought  up  many  poor  scholars  in  his  house,  to 
have  had  very  much  plate,  and  to  have  been  served  at 
his  table  in  very  great  state,  all  in  silver.  Sir  William 
Brereton,  whose  travels  have  been  published  by  the 
Chetham  Society,  gives  an  interesting  account  of 
a  visit  to  him  in  1634,  and  of  the  great  hospitality 
maintained  by  him  in  "an  orderly,  well-governed 
house,"  of  whose  grandeur  he  gives  some  idea  by 
enumerating  its  two  chapels,  the  one  over  the  other, 
the  lower  made  use  of  on  Sabbath  days,  its  three 
dining-rooms,  fair-matted  gallery,  and  "  dainty  stately 
park."  The  fated  king,  who  had  on  a  previous  oc- 
casion, as  a  little  boy  travelling  into  England  from 
Scotland  shortly  after  his  father's  accession,  broken  his 
journey  for  a  time  with  Bishop  Toby  Matthew  at  the 
castle,  was  to  return  to  Bishop  Auckland  in  1646/7, 
after  Bishop  Morton  had  been  expelled  by  the  Parlia- 
mentarians. The  abode  which  had  afforded  him  such 
loyal  hospitality,  was  then  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies, 
and  he,  with  the  soldiers  who  guarded  him,  was  lodged 
in  a  rough  inn.  The  pre-Commonwealth  bishops  of 
Durham  seem  to  have  been  distinguished  by  the  alto- 


224       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

gether  superior  way  in  which  they  discharged  the 
episcopal  duty  of  hospitality.  Perhaps  the  reason  that 
Charles,  in  his  delicate  childhood,  was  entrusted  for 
a  time  to  Bishop  Matthew,  may  be  found  in  the 
excellence  of  Auckland  housekeeping  in  his  time.  Of 
Mrs.  Matthew  we  hear  that  she  "  was  a  very  gallant 
woman  and  a  great  housewife,  insomuch  that  those 
who  had  a  desire  to  bestow  good  breeding  upon  their 
daughters  thought  themselves  happv,  and  that  they 
had  more  than  half  bred  their  daughters,  if  they  could 
get  them  entertained  with  Mrs.  Matthew's  service. 
She  sewed  a  very  stately  and  rich  bed,  and  presented 
it  to  the  queen,  who  kindly  accepted  it." 

Another  Stuart  visitor  destined  for  the  castle  by 
James  was  Arabella  Stuart,  whose  imprisonment  in  the 
care  of  Neile's  predecessor,  Bishop  James,  was  to  have 
been  passed  here.  But  she  refused  to  be  banished  to 
the  wilds  of  Durham.  This  bishop  may  literally  be 
said  to  have  been  a  martyr  to  the  Stuart  temper.  He 
speaks  of  himself  as  going  to  Bath  to  cure  ill-health, 
solely  brought  on  by  his  attendance  on  her,  and  Surtees 
says  that  his  last  illness  was  brought  on  by  the  scolding 
administered  to  him  by  James  I.  at  Durham  ;  and  that 
the  bishop  went  back  to  Auckland  to  die  there,  scolded 
to  death,  three  days  after  it  took  place. 

Whether  sympathies  are  Royalist  or  Parliamentarian, 
there  can  be  but  one  mind  about  the  treatment  meted 
out  to  ancient  buildings,  especially  those  of  an  eccle- 
siastical, or  worse  still,  episcopal  character,  by  the 
Puritans.  Auckland,  in  spite  of  Bishop  Neile's  ex- 
penditure in  repairs,  does  not  seem  to  have  escaped 
the  universal  fate  of  defacement  and  destruction.  On 
8th  March  1647  it  was  sold  to  that  foremost  Parlia- 
mentarian, Sir  Arthur  Haselrigg,  for  ;/^6io2,  8s.  ii|d. 
A  survey  made  preparatory  to  this  sale  is  given  in  full 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  225 

by  Raine  in  his  history  of  the  castle.  This  speaks  of 
it  as  "a  very  stately  manor-house,"  with  two  chapels 
to  it,  one  over  the  other,  built  of  stone  and  covered 
with  lead.  It  makes  a  special  mention  of  the  stately 
gate-house,  and  says  the  several  courts,  yards,  and 
gardens  within  the  wall  cover  about  five  acres.  The 
rooms  then  in  existence  must  have  been  very  much  the 
same  as  those  mentioned  in  an  inventory  taken  at 
Bishop  Neile's  translation  to  Winchester  in  1628. 
The  park  has  not  much  timber  older  than  the  Com- 
monwealth, and  Cosin  says  that  Sir  Arthur  "  left 
never  a  tree  or  pollard  standing  "  ;  but  in  fairness  to 
him  it  must  be  noted  that  Sir  William  Brereton,  whose 
interesting  account  of  his  visit  in  1634  has  been  before 
referred  to,  said  there  was  much  store  of  wood,  but 
little  timber. 

Of  the  building  it  would  perhaps  be  safe  to  say 
that,  if  he  did  not  demolish  all  that  was  laid  to  his 
charge,  the  whole  structure  fell  into  neglect  and  dis- 
repair while  in  Sir  Arthur's  possession.  When  Bishop 
Cosin,  after  the  Restoration,  set  to  work  to  restore 
the  castle,  it  would  appear,  however,  from  the  word- 
ing of  his  accounts,  that  others  had  had  their  share 
in  the  business  of  ruining  it.  Surtees  says  Sir  Arthur 
"  plucked  down  the  old  pile  and  Anthony  Bek's 
chapel,  and  began  a  new  palace  within  the  east  curtain 
wall,  but  the  whole  of  this  new  building  Cosin,  from 
some  strange  superstition,  pulled  down,  and  reared 
almost  from  the  ground  the  whole  palace  which  now 
exists  on  the  scite  of  the  old  castle."  This  "  strange 
superstition "  as  Surtees  so  contemptuously  calls  it, 
is  somewhat  differently  treated  by  Camden,  who,  in 
his  Britannia^  says  that  Bishop  Cosin,  because  Sir 
Arthur  Haselrigg's  palace  had  been  sacrilegiously 
built  with  the  materials  of  the  old  chapel,  pulled  it 

p 


2  26       EPISCOPAL   PALACES  OF   YORK 

down,  and  built  other  apartments  to  what  remained 
of  the  old.  He  further  states  that  the  old  hall, 
75  feet  long  by  32  broad,  and  t,^  feet  high,  remains, 
and  other  good  offices.  It  is  stated  in  "  a  view  of  the 
estate  of  the  bishopric  of  Durham,"  given  in  Cosin's 
correspondence,  that  "  the  usurpers  Sir  Arthur  Hesel- 
rigg  and  others  had  ruined  "  the  castle,  but  the  details 
of  rebuilding  expenses  show  that  Camden's  account 
rather  than  Surtees'  is  the  correct  one.  Whether 
we  incline  to  agree  with  "  strange  superstition "  as 
a  description  of  Cosin's  action,  or  to  apply  the  term 
"sacrilege"  to  that  of  Sir  Arthur,  it  is  not  impossible 
to  understand  the  feeling  that  "  plucked  down "  the 
palace  the  latter  had  erected.  This  is  described  by 
Dugdale,  who  says  Sir  Arthur  "  intended  to  build 
a  new  structure  of  a  noble  fabric,  all  of  one  pile, 
taking  for  his  model  the  curious  and  stately  building 
at  Thorpe,  near  Peterborough,  a  large,  square,  four- 
storied  edifice,  which  Chief  Justice  Oliver  St.  John, 
after  the  murder  of  Charles  I.,  erected  partly  out 
of  the  cathedral  at  Peterborough." 

At  a  later  date  sacrilegious  hands  were  to  attack 
with  stucco  and  whitewash  stately  apartments  which 
in  the  name  of  improvement  and  restoration  suffered 
treatment  not  much  less  injurious  than  they  had 
endured  at  the  hand  of  the  Puritan.  But  though 
we  may  set  this  humiliating  reflection  in  the  scales 
to  soften  our  indignation,  it  would  not  be  easy  to 
forgive  Sir  Arthur  Haselrigg,  "  the  former  faire 
chappell "  of  Bishop  Anthony  Bek,  if  he  really  pulled 
it  down  to  furnish  himself  with  material  for  a  residence 
of  the  latest  fashion.  But  opinion  is  extraordinarily 
divided  on  this  question.  Raine,  in  his  history  of 
Auckland  Castle,  strongly  argues  in  favour  of  Cosin's 
having  repaired  and  not  rebuilt  the  old  chapel,  though 


AUCKLAND    CASTLE  227 

this  is  in  direct  opposition  to  the  statements  made  in 
the  accounts  of  Cosin's  expenditure  published  in  his 
correspondence.  Raine  perhaps  shows  himself  some- 
what over-anxious  to  contradict  all  previous  historians, 
to  defend  Sir  Arthur  Haselrigg,  to  minimise  the 
damage  done  by  him,  and  to  criticise  unfavourably 
Cosin's  building  operations.  He  maintains  that  Cosin 
used  Sir  Arthur's  new  structure  only  for  repairing  the 
castle,  not  at  all  for  the  chapel ;  that  it  was  not  Sir 
Arthur  who  destroyed  Bek's  chapel,  and  that  no  such 
demolition  generally  can  be  laid  to  his  charge  as  he  has 
been  accused  of. 

It  is  never  possible  to  read  without  a  thrill  of  the 
home-coming  of  Cavalier  families  after  the  Restoration. 
Though  there  is  no  such  home-coming  to  record  in  the 
case  of  Auckland  Castle,  Bishop  Morton  having  died  in 
1659  at  the  ripe  age  of  ninety-five,  we  are  inclined  to 
sympathise  as  if  the  old  building  had  been  a  sentient 
thing  to  be  cherished,  when  we  read  of  the  zeal  with 
which  repairs  and  rebuilding  were  put  in  hand  as  soon 
as  Bishop  Cosin  was  able  to  set  about  the  operation. 
Certainly  if  the  old  stones  had  been  sentient  things, 
and  conscious  of  the  animosity  or  contempt  they  had 
roused,  they  would  have  understood  that  whether  the 
work  now  done  was  altogether  judicious  or  not,  much 
loving  care  at  least  was  expended  to  atone  for  the 
neglect  which  cannot  be  denied,  even  if  the  "  spoiling 
and  ruining  "  has  been  exaggerated. 

Bishop  Cosin  was  appointed  to  the  see  in  December 
1660,  and  in  September  of  the  following  year  his 
secretary,  Myles  Stapylton,  is  able  to  write  to  Mr, 
William  Sancroft  of  the  installation  of  the  episcopal 
household  at  the  castle  ;  a  letter  from  the  bishop  him- 
self to  the  same  correspondent  in  that  month  even 
mentioning  the  presence  of  his  daughters  there.     The 


22  8       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

secretary's  letter,  dated  6th  September  1661,  after 
telling  of  the  bishop's  coming,  states  that  all  his  goods 
are  safely  arrived,  that  "  his  library  is  a  setting  up,  the 
greatest  part  of  the  bookes  he  hath  here  being  up 
already,  and  the  rest  will  be  set  up  in  a  day  or  two's 
time  ;  the  place  he  hath  chose  for  it  is  the  long  gallery 
at  Awkland."  It  is  clear  that  Surtees  altogether  over- 
estimated the  demolition  for  which  Sir  Arthur  Hasel- 
rigg  was  responsible. 

An  account  of  the  bishop's  expenses  to  1668, 
published  in  his  Correspondence,  says  that  by  that 
date  he  had  expended  ^17,500  in  repairing  and 
rebuilding  Auckland  Castle  and  the  castle  of  Dur- 
ham, which  latter  "  the  Scots  spoyl'd  and  ruined  with 
gunpowder."  Of  this  sum  "  ^6000  was  expended  in 
erecting  from  the  ground  and  consecrating  a  faire  large 
new  chappell  at  Auckland  Castle,  the  former  faire 
chappell  there  having  been  totally  pulled  down  by 
Sir  Arthur  Haselrigg."  This  new  chapel,  with  all  the 
splendid  inventory  of  books,  plate,  and  ornaments  for 
the  service  of  the  altar  with  which  he  adorned  it,  was 
to  furnish  his  last  resting-place,  and  it  was  here,  under 
a  stone  on  the  floor,  that  he  was  buried  in  1672,  all  the 
country  assembling  to  do  honour  to  the  loyal  and  warm- 
hearted churchman  who  had  so  munificently  cared  for 
his  Auckland  home. 

No  details  had  been  too  small  for  him  to  attend 
to,  and  in  one  of  his  letters  we  find  him  giving  minute 
instructions  about  the  gravelling  of  its  paths.  The 
park,  from  which  we  find  Bishop  Morton,  in  the  very 
last  year  before  the  Rebellion,  despatching  so  many 
presents  of  venison  to  Viscount  Conway  and  others, 
had  lost  its  herd  of  wild  bulls  and  its  bucks.  The 
bishop  not  only  did  much  replanting,  he  stocked  it 
again  with  deer,  though  not  with  the  bulls — or  bisons, 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  229 

as  they  were  described  in  the  survey  of  1647,  This 
speaks  of  them  as  all  destroyed  but  two  or  three. 
So  with  the  Rebellion  had  disappeared  the  "  bulles 
and  bukkes  "  mentioned  as  early  as  1503  by  Bishop 
William  Sever,  and  the  bulls  have  never  been  re- 
placed. 

The  deeds  and  letters  relating  to  Cosin's  work, 
published  in  his  Correspondence  and  in  Raine's  history 
of  the  castle,  though  they  give  abundance  of  instruc- 
tions, are  not  on  all  points  explicit  enough  to  clear  up 
the  questions  of  damage  done  respectively  by  Sir 
Arthur  Haselrigg's  "  plucking  down "  and  Cosin's 
repairs  and  renovations,  but  show  to  what  a  complete 
remodelling  the  then  existing  buildings  were  in  many 
cases  subjected.^  The  existence  of  more  than  one 
chapel,  dining-room,  great  room,  &c.,  add  to  the 
difficulty  of  elucidating  this  matter. 

An  elaborate  account  of  the  ceremonies  with 
which,  after  his  death  in  London  in  1672,  his  body 
was  brought  to  the  chapel  at  Auckland,  is  to  be  found 
in  a  letter  from  George  Brereton  to  Secretary  William- 
son, of  30th  April  1672.^  "On  Saturday,  the  27th, 
the  greatest  part,  and  especially  the  chief  of  the  gentry 
of  the  county  palatine,  with  many  of  the  clergy,  met 
the  corpse  at  the  River  Tees.  When  they  came  within 
a  mile  of  Durham,  the  proceeding  being  ordered  in  the 
like  sort  as  it  was  in  London,  the  chief  mourner  and 
his  six  assistants  put  on  their  gowns  and  hoods,  and  at 

^  Cf-  Correspondence,  ii.  366.  By  articles  of  agreement  of  3rd  March 
1663,  John  Langstaffe,  of  Bishop  Auckland,  freemason,  agreed  "before  29th 
September  next  to  take  down  the  aishler  in  Sir  Arthur  Ileselrigg's  building 
and  remove  it,  and  take  away  all  the  old  Ijuildings  before  the  great  chamber 
or  hall  (now  used  for  a  dining-room)  at  Auckland  Castle,  and  bringe  up  the 
front  wall  of  the  said  great  chamber  or  hall  with  rustic  aishler  of  the  said  new 
building,  and  remove  the  windows  from  the  backe  side  of  the  said  great 
chamber  to  the  fore  side  of  it,  and  make  the  one  newe  windowe  of  the  same 
forme  on  the  east  side  .   .  ."  &c. 

*  S.  P.  Dom,  1671-72,  p.  397. 


2  30       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF    YORK 

the  entrance  of  the  city  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  stood 
in  their  liveries  within  the  west  gate,  and  then  followed 
the  hearse  to   the   castle,   where  the  whole   company 
alighted    from    their    horses,    and    the    prebendaries, 
whereof  the  Bishop  of  Bristol  was  one,  received  them. 
Thence  they  went  to  the  church  to  evening  prayer,  in 
this  solemn  manner:  First,   two  conductors  in  black 
gowns  with  staves  in  their  hands;  then  the  poor  people 
of  the  hospitals  of  Durham  and  Auckland  founded  by 
the   deceased  ;   next,  servants  to  gentlemen,  esquires, 
and  knights,  all  in  mourning ;  next,  divers  clergymen 
of  the    diocese    in   their   canonicals ;    after  them  five 
chaplains,  and  next  the  Bishop  of  Bristol  in  his  epis- 
copal robes ;    then  the  great  banner  carried  by  Miles 
Stapleton,    Esq.,    the   crozier    by    York    Herald,    and 
the  mitre  by  Norroy  King-at-Arms,  before  the  corpse, 
which  was  borne  by  eight  men  in  gowns,  the  pall  lying 
thereon  being  supported  by  four  of  the  prebendaries, 
and  the  bannerols  by  four  gentlemen  of  quality,  the 
chief  mourner  and  his  six  assistants  following  it,  and 
after  them  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  Durham,  with 
a   multitude   of  the   gentry  residing   thereabouts,  the 
whole  choir  of  the  cathedral  in  their  habits  meeting  it 
also,  and  falling  into  the  proceedings  next  after  the 
chaplains,  and  thus   going   to   the   upper  end   of  the 
body  of  the  church  ;  the  conductors,  poor  people,  and 
servants  dividing  themselves,  so  that  the  rest,  entering 
the  choir,  placed  the  corpse  in   the  midst,  where   it 
continued    till     Monday    morning,    and    was    thence 
solemnly  carried   to  Bishop's  Auckland   in    the  same 
manner  as  into  Durham,   and   as   fully   attended,  all 
the  deputy  lieutenants  of  the   county  palatine   being 
there  ;  at  which  place  the  proceeding  was  made  from 
the   Market   Cross    on   foot   to   that   sumptuous   and 
beautiful  chapel  by  him  likewise  built,  and  furnished 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  231 

with  gilt  plate  and  other  utensils  for  the  altar  there 
to  the  value  of  ;^iooo,  left  by  him  to  his  successors 
for  sacred  purposes  in  that  chapel  for  ever,  where, 
after  a  sermon  by  Dr.  Isaac  Basire,  one  of  the  preben- 
daries of  Durham  and  Archdeacon  of  Northumberland, 
it  was  interred  with  all  due  rites  by  the  before-men- 
tioned Bishop  of  Bristol." 

The  bishop,  in  addition  to  the  sums  already  shown 
to  have  been  spent  by  him  at  Auckland,  bequeathed  to 
his  successors  the  college  adjoining  the  castle,  which 
Sir  Arthur  Haselrigg  had  purchased  from  the  owners 
and  forfeited  to  the  king,  who  graciously  bestowed  it 
upon  the  bishop  in  his  private  capacity.  The  gift  of 
this  place,  "  so  near  adjoining  to  Auckland  Castle  that 
the  bishops  cannot  conveniently  live  there  without  it," 
added  considerably  to  the  comfort  of  residence  at  the 
castle. 

We  are  fortunate  in  possessing  one  more  vivid  little 
picture,  of  an  intimate  and  domestic  character,  of  pro- 
ceedings in  the  castle  at  a  supremely  critical  moment 
in  the  history  of  the  English  Church  and  English 
nation.  When  James  IL  issued  his  Declaration  of 
Indulgence,  refusal  to  read  it  was  general  in  the  dio- 
cese, though  the  dean,  Denis  Granville,  who  followed 
James  into  exile,  and  the  bishop,  Nathaniel,  Lord 
Crewe,  were  remarkable  for  the  zeal  with  which  they 
had  supported  the  king's  measures.  In  a  copy  of 
Granville's  Remains,  belonging  to  his  friend  the  non- 
juring  scholar  and  antiquary,  Thomas  Baker,  there 
occurs  the  following  note,  which  throws  an  interesting 
light  upon  the  course  events  took  in  the  castle  on  this 
memorable  occasion:  "When  the  king's  Declaration 
was  appointed  to  be  read,  the  most  condescending 
thing  the  bishop  ever  did  with  me,  was  coming  to  my 
chamber   (remote   from  his),  to   prevaill  with   me  to 


2  32       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

read  it  in  his  chapel  at  Aukland ;  which  I  could  not 
do,  having  wrote  to  my  curate  not  to  read  it  in  my 
living  at  Long  Newton.  But  he  did  prevaill  with  the 
curate  at  Aukland  to  read  it  in  his  church,  where  the 
bishop  was  present  to  countenance  the  performance. 
When  all  was  over,  the  bishop,  as  a  penance,  I  pre- 
sume, ordered  me  to  go  to  the  dean,  as  archdeacon, 
and  require  him  to  make  a  return  to  court  of  the  names 
of  all  such  as  had  not  read  it,  which  I  did,  though 
I  was  one  of  the  number."  A  more  suggestive 
description  of  the  position  in  which  the  English 
clergy  were  placed  at  this  moment  could  not  well  be 
imagined. 

The  bishop  suspended  thirty  ministers  in  his  diocese 
for  their  refusal  to  read,  but  subsequently  justified  the 
charges  of  time-serving  which  had  previously  been 
brought  against  his  assiduous  promotion  of  the  pro- 
jects of  James,  by  the  promptitude  with  which  he 
proceeded  to  transfer  his  allegiance  to  William  III. 
It  was  in  the  year  of  the  Revolution  that  Bishop  Crewe 
erected  the  organ  and  organ-loft  in  the  chapel,  but  his 
generosity  in  money  gifts  and  bequests,  great  as  it  was, 
at  Auckland  as  elsewhere,  cannot  obliterate  the  memory 
of  his  servility  and  disloyalty. 

The  old  castle  has  not  been  destined  again  to 
witness  such  epoch-making  incidents  as  have  been 
recorded  in  these  pages,  though  the  change  which 
raised  it  from  the  official  rank  of  country  mansion  of 
the  bishopric  to  that  of  the  palace  of  the  see,  when, 
in  1832,  Bishop  van  Mildert  resigned  his  palace  at 
Durham  to  found  the  new  university  there,  was  indeed, 
in  its  own  way,  an  almost  revolutionary  innovation. 
By  this  change  the  castle,  the  only  one  remaining 
unconfiscated  of  the  six  castles  and  eight  manorial 
residences  of  the  ancient  bishopric   of  Durham,  had 


AUCKLAND   CASTLE  233 

assigned  to  it  an  importance  of  which  its  vast  extent, 
and  its  truly  palatial  situation  on  the  lofty  eminence 
that  overlooks  such  a  splendid  park  and  magnificently 
wooded  landscapes  (as  well  as  its  long  career  as  rival 
with  Durham  in  the  affection  of  its  bishops),  renders 
it  in  every  way  worthy. 

All  that  has  to  be  recorded  in  those  later  happy 
years,  which  atone  for  their  lack  of  history  by  their 
abundance  of  peace  and  quiet,  is  mainly  of  an  architec- 
tural interest.  With  historic  buildings,  neglect  can  be 
salutary  or  the  reverse,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of 
the  benevolent  attentions  of  the  improver.  Auckland 
has  had  its  share  of  both  kinds  of  neglect  and  attention. 
In  1737,  that  indefatigable  traveller,  the  second  Earl 
of  Oxford,  wrote  of  it  as  a  fine  old  building,  but  very 
much  out  of  repair;  he  adds,  "  The  chapel  a  very  good 
one,  and  finely  fitted  up  by  Bishop  Cosin,  but  nothing 
done  to  any  part  of  it  since  his  time ;  there  is  a  very 
large  dining-room  upstairs,  and  there  has  been  a  very 
long  gallery,  but  great  part  of  it  is  now  converted  into 
bed-chambers."  This  was  the  second  occasion  on 
which  he  had  visited  the  place  :  on  a  previous  visit,  in 
1725,  he  had  been  chiefly  struck  by  the  way  in  which 
he  had  found  Bishop  Cosin's  arms  everywhere,  both  in 
the  windows  and  on  the  walls  of  the  palace  and  chapel, 
and  with  the  inscription  recording  the  rebuilding  by 
him  over  the  south  gate.  On  both  occasions  he  did 
not  fail  to  remark  the  extreme  beauty  of  the  little 
park  and  of  its  situation  and  surroundings,  as  well  as 
the  fortunate  way  in  which  the  building  is  sheltered 
from  the  east  wind  by  the  large  hill  which  screens  it. 

.  The  neglect  of  which  the  earl  writes  was  followed 
by  a  period  of  attention.  Bishop  Trevor  (1752-71), 
who  probably  found  the  castle  as  Cosin  left  it,  and  as 
it  appears  in  the  plate  dated   1728  in  Raine's  history. 


2  34      EPISCOPAL  PALACES   OF   YORK 

began  the  present  south  front;  and  the  Gothic  archway 
by  which  the  park  is  entered  from  the  town,  where 
Skirlaw's  gate  formerly  stood,  was  built  by  him  in 
1760.  His  successor,  Bishop  Egerton  (1771-87), 
finished  the  south  front  begun  by  him,  repaired  the 
great  room,  erected  a  lodge  and  gate  at  the  north-east 
entrance,  lowered  the  walls  of  the  court  and  bowling- 
green  which  had  been  rebuilt  by  Bishop  Butler  in  1750, 
and  extended  the  park  walls.  Bishop  Shute  Barrington 
(1791-1826)  spent  much  money  on  renovations  which 
were  carried  out  under  the  directions  of  James  Wyatt, 
who  considerably  reduced  the  height  of  the  great 
drawing-room  by  erecting  a  stucco  ceiling,  and  en- 
closed the  south  front  by  a  stone  screen  or  range  of 
low  pointed  arches,  with  a  large  central  gateway. 
Various  alterations  and  restorations  were  made  in 
the  chapel  by  Bishop  van  Mildert  (1827-28)  and 
Bishop  Lightfoot  (1879-89). 


(Ho0e  CaBtk 


WHERE  the  sluggish  Caldew  winds  among 
fertile  meadows  on  its  way  to  the  Eden 
stands  Rose  Castle,  the  seat  of  the  Bishops 
of  Carlisle.  Built  in  the  local  red  sand- 
stone, weathered  and  stained  by  time,  it  still  (although 
restored  in  a  style  of  architecture  not  altogether 
pleasing)  forms  a  Turneresque  picture,  standing  above 
terraced  lawns  and  gardens  that  slope  down  into  a 
wooded  valley,  with  a  surrounding  landscape  circled  in 
the  distance  by  a  long  belt  of  famous  hills.  To  the 
south  rise  the  great  peaks  of  the  Lake  District,  Skiddaw 
and  Helvellyn,  to  the  south-east  Saddleback,  to  the 
east  Crossfell,  to  the  north  the  Northumbrian  moors 
and  the  Cheviots,  and  to  the  west,  abruptly  descending 
to  the  Solway,  the  Great  Criffel.  The  castle  in  this 
sheltered  vale  could  only  tell  to  the  learned  eye  that 
its  perfect  peace  is  quite  a  recent  picture,  that  nearly 
every  darker  current  of  English  history  has  washed  up 
to  its  abbey-like  walls.  James  VI.,  looking  at  the 
Johnstones'  home  at  Lochwood  Tower,  is  said  to  have 
exclaimed,  from  the  somewhat  narrow  royal  point  of 
view,  "  The  man  who  built  this  must  have  been  a 
knave  in  his  heart ! "  and  the  pious  antiquarian,  as 
he  enters  the  precincts  of  Rose  Castle  under  the  old 
gateway,  with  its  sunk  embattlement,  and  looks  at 
the  Strickland  Tower,  the  early  building  about  which 
the  subsequent  dwelling  rose,  to  his  left,  might  very 
well  reflect  that  the  people  among  whom  a  bishop's 


236      EPISCOPAL    PALACES   OF   YORK 

habitation  needed  to  be  of  this  strength  must  have 
been  a  knave  in  its  heart.  The  history  of  Rose  Castle 
is,  as  long  as  they  existed,  interwoven  with  that  of  the 
Borders,  of  which  Carlisle,  the  head  of  the  bishopric, 
six  miles  away,  was  the  military  centre.  Situated  at 
the  edge  of  the  country  which  the  Norman  kings  were 
able  to  conquer,  Cumberland  was  for  some  time  after 
the  Conquest  a  subject  of  dispute  between  England  and 
Scotland,  and  afterwards  its  whole  history  was  coloured 
by  the  fact  of  its  position  as  a  Border  county. 

Carlisle  had  been  destroyed  by  the  Danes  in  877, 
and  was  not  restored  until  the  end  of  the  eleventh 
century  by  the  second  of  the  Norman  kings.  The 
Saxon  Chronicle  relates  that  William  Rufus  went  north- 
ward with  a  large  army  to  Carlisle,  restored  the  city 
and  drove  out  Dolfin,  its  governor,  built  the  castle, 
garrisoned  it,  returned  south,  "  and  mickle  many 
churlish  folk  with  wives  and  cattle  thither  sent  to 
dwell  in  the  land  to  till  it."  This  castle  built  at  Car- 
lisle commanded  the  passage  of  the  Eden  and  the  old 
Roman  road  from  Scotland  into  the  plain  of  York, 
while  about  twenty  miles  to  the  north-east  was  Bew- 
castle,  the  other  key  to  Scotland  and  Cumberland,  on 
the  second  Roman  road.  These  two  castles  guarded 
the  western  marches  so  far  as  armies  were  concerned ; 
and  for  "  moss-troopers  "  the  natural  path  to  and  fro 
also  lay  through  this  district,  in  the  valley  formed 
by  the  Eden  between  the  Pennine  range  and  the 
mountains  of  Cumberland.  William  Rufus  therefore 
introduced  southern  settlers,  and  built  many  castles  to 
defend  these  parts  ;  and  Henry  L,  after  trying  the 
effect  of  an  earldom  of  Carlisle,  established  in  1133, 
no  doubt  with  this  political  view,  the  bishopric  of 
Carlisle,  then  with  the  rest  of  Cumberland  under  the 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  perhaps  of  Durham,  perhaps 


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ROSE   CASTLE  237 

of  Glasgow,  both  sees  claiming  it.  Henry,  moreover, 
married  the  Scottish  king's  sister,  and  carefully  pre- 
served peace.  On  his  death,  however,  David  I.  of 
Scotland,  partly  under  pretext  of  aiding  his  niece,  the 
Empress  Matilda,  to  obtain  the  English  throne  and 
partly  to  enforce  his  son  Henry's  claim  to  the  earldom 
of  Northumberland  as  heir  of  Siward,  obtained  the 
help  of  many  of  the  English  barons  and  invaded 
England  as  far  as  Yorkshire,  ravaging  as  he  went. 
He  received  a  crushing  defeat  at  the  Battle  of  the 
Standard  in  1138,  and  in  1157  Henry  II.  persuaded 
his  successor,  Malcolm  IV.,  to  renounce  his  claim  to 
Northumberland,  Cumberland,  and  Westmorland. 

The  Scots  did  not  again  interfere  in  England  until 
the  revolt  of  Henry  II. 's  sons  in  r  174,  when  William 
the  Lion  came  south  to  give  his  aid  to  the  rebellious 
princes.  There  were  further  difficulties  in  the  early 
thirteenth  century,  but  there  was  no  important  breach 
with  Scotland  from  this  time  until  Edward  I.'s  un- 
disguised attempt  to  annex  it  to  the  English  Crown, 
and  the  ruthless  severity  of  his  methods  set  the  sword 
permanently  between  the  two  nations.  Taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  dispute  over  the  Scottish  succession, 
Edward  I.  established  his  overlordship  over  Scotland, 
and  then  managed  to  make  the  English  yoke  even 
more  galling  than  it  necessarily  was,  with  the  result 
that  his  nominee,  Balliol,  finally  tried  to  throw  it  off, 
and  made  an  alliance  with  Philip  IV.  of  France, 
against  whom  Edward  was  at  war.  In  revenge  the 
English  king  marched  north,  attacked  the  rich  and 
important  town  of  Berwick-on-Tweed  by  land  and  by 
sea,  and  massacred  its  inhabitants:  17,000  persons,  it 
is  said,  were  put  to  the  sword,  and  for  two  days  "  the 
city  ran  with  blood  like  a  river."  The  churches,  as 
usual  in  Border  warfare,  were  plundered  and  defiled. 


238       EPISCOPAL   PALACES  OF   YORK 

From  the  time  of  this  raid  of  1296  until  the 
accession  of  the  King  of  Scotland  in  1603  ^^  ^^e 
throne  of  England,  the  flame  of  war  between  the  two 
kingdoms  was  ever  ready  to  burst  forth.  If  the  Scots 
lacked  any  just  cause  for  invasion  they  always  found 
such  pretexts  as  the  misfortunes  of  the  dynasty  of  the 
Red  Rose,  or,  with  perfect  impartiality,  the  efforts  of 
Perkin  Warbeck  to  re-establish  in  his  own  person  the 
dynasty  of  the  White  Rose  ;  and,  until  the  Reforma- 
tion alienated  Scotland  from  France,  the  latter  nation, 
in  the  event  of  a  war  with  England,  could  always  count 
on  a  distracting  sally  from  the  former.  As  the 
English  put  the  point  of  honour  in  punishing  every 
Scottish  raid,  and  the  Scots  in  returning  every  English 
raid,  the  Borders  were,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  to  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  no 
place  for  men  who  were  at  the  same  time  peaceful  and 
honest.  The  constant  and  simple  plan  of  each  army 
was  to  burn  and  destroy  as  far  within  the  enemy's 
country  as  it  could  get,  but  sometimes  also  to  lay 
waste  its  own  borders  and  retire,  so  that  the  invading 
force  should  be  compelled  to  do  likewise  for  lack  of 
sustenance.  Thus  peculiarly  exposed,  the  history  of 
any  place  on  the  Borders  is  quite  different  from  that  of 
other  English  and  Scottish  towns. 

The  counties  of  Northumberland  and  Cumberland 
on  the  English  side,  Berwickshire,  and  Roxburghshire, 
Dumfriesshire,  Peebles,  and  Selkirk  on  the  Scottish 
side,  formed  the  frayed  edges  of  the  two  kingdoms. 
They  were  divided  into  east,  middle,  and  west  marches, 
over  which  were  placed  wardens,  by  the  English  over 
the  English  counties,  by  the  Scots  over  the  Scottish, 
the  wardens  generally  being  of  local  families.  The 
heads  of  the  famous  Douglas  clan,  one  of  whom  as 
"  a  dead  man  "  won  the  battle  of  Otterbourne,  were 


ROSE   CASTLE  239 

almost  hereditary  wardens  on  the  Scottish  side,  and 
after  the  fall  of  the  house  of  Douglas  in  1455  the 
office  was,  until  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  in 
the  hands  of  one  or  other  of  the  great  Border  houses 
that  succeeded  to  the  fame  of  the  Douglases — the  Scotts 
of  Buccleuch,  the  Kerrs  of  Cessford  and  Farniehurst, 
the  Homes,  Maxwells,  and  Johnstones,  all  famous 
names  in  Border  history  and  legend.  The  Kerrs  or 
Scotts  were  generally  wardens  of  the  middle  march, 
the  Homes  and  sometimes  the  Earls  of  Angus  of 
the  eastern,  and  the  Maxwells  or  Johnstones  of  the 
western.  On  the  English  side  the  office  of  warden 
of  the  western  marches  was  often  in  early  times  in 
the  hands  of  the  Bishops  of  Carlisle,  that  of  the  eastern 
usually  in  those  of  the  Percies. 

The  private  feuds  of  these  families  were  even  more 
responsible  for  the  horrors  of  Border  life  than  was  the 
constant  open  warfare.  There  were  feuds  between  the 
Scotts  and  Kerrs,  the  Maxwells  and  Johnstones,  the 
Graemes  and  Armstrongs  of  Liddesdale  (just  to  the 
north  of  Carlisle),  the  Redes  and  Halls  of  Redesdale, 
and  in  Tynedale  betv/een  the  Herons  and  Carnabies  ; 
and  when  the  great  Northumbrian  house  of  Percy  was 
not  engaged  in  combat  with  the  Douglases  across  the 
Border,  it  was  generally  at  feud  with  the  Nevilles  at 
home. 

Harry  Percy,  "  the  Hotspur  of  the  north,"  in  the 
early  fifteenth  century,  had  a  reputation  that  stirred 
envy  in  Prince  Henry  of  England  in  his  better 
moments  :  he  "  kills  me  some  six  or  dozen  of  Scots  at 
a  breakfast,  washes  his  hands,  and  says  to  his  wife,  '  Fie 
upon  this  quiet  life  !  I  want  work.'  '  O  my  sweet 
Harry,'  says  she,  '  how  many  hast  thou  killed  to-day  ? ' 
'  Give  my  roan  horse  a  drench,'  says  he  ;  and  answers 
'  Some  fourteen,'  an  hour  after  ;  '  a  trifle,  a  trifle.'  " 


240       EPISCOPAL   PALACES  OF   YORK 

The  crown  of  Border  anarchy  was  the  raid  of  the 
obscure  cattle-thief.  To  control  the  Borders,  special 
laws  were  made  for  the  marches,  and  the  sixteenth- 
century  codes  reminded  Dr.  Hodgkin  of  those  of  the 
barbarians  who  overran  the  Roman  empire,  the  chief 
provisions  of  both  being  against  cattle-lifting  and  the 
feud.  It  is  true  that,  when  England  and  Scotland 
were  at  peace.  Border  thieves  were  supposed  to  be 
handed  over  by  the  respective  wardens,  but  the  latter 
seem  often  to  have  connived  at  their  misdoings,  and 
there  was  until  1552  a  strip  of  land  between  the  Esk 
and  the  Sark  (again  not  very  far  from  Carlisle)  which, 
as  it  was  claimed  by  both  nations,  was  known  as  the 
Debatable  Land,  where  the  "  broken  men "  of  both 
countries  found  refuge.  Here  flourished  outlawed 
families  like  the  Graemes,  who — 

"  Sought  the  beeves  that  made  their  broth 
In  England  and  in  Scotland  both." 

The  ladies  of  the  Scotts  of  Harden  had  spurs  for 
dinner  when  the  larder  was  empty,  and  the  house- 
wives of  Cumberland  laid  a  sword  on  the  table.  One 
of  the  best  tales  of  Border  life  is  that  of  the  rescue  of 
"Kinmont  Willie"  by  the  bold  Buccleuch.  Kinmont 
Willie,  one  of  the  most  redoubtable  Border  thieves, 
had  been,  for  some  reason,  taken  prisoner  by  the 
English  during  the  truce  between  England  and  Scot- 
land in  1596,  and  was  imprisoned  in  Carlisle  Castle, 
no  doubt  to  swing  later  on  the  spot  known  fondly  to 
the  moss-trooper  as  "  Hairibee."  He  was  saved  from 
his  natural  end,  however,  by  the  daring  of  Buccleuch, 
who,  with  his  clansmen,  rescued  him  under  the  very 
eyes  of  the  warden,  and  got  clear  of  Carlisle  by  fording 
the  Eden  swollen  by  rains.  As  the  English  saw  the 
Scottish  horses  struggling  to  land  on  the  further  bank 


ROSE   CASTLE  241 


they  could  only  rub  their  eyes  and  conclude  that 
Buccleuch  was  the  son  of  a  witch.  But,  for  this  deed, 
James  VI.  was  summoned  by  his  imperious  relative  to 
surrender  the  bold  Buccleuch,  who  was  brought  before 
the  queen  and  questioned,  in  the  most  awful  Tudor 
way,  how  he  dared  to  storm  her  castle  of  Carlisle.  It 
is  a  tradition  in  the  Buccleuch  family  that  their  bold 
ancestor  replied  in  the  grand  manner  :  "  What  is  there, 
madam,  that  a  brave  man  dare  not  do  ? " — a  reply  that 
might  have  served  as  a  motto  for  the  Borders  and  was 
well  calculated  to  delight  Elizabeth.  She  turned  to  her 
attendants  and  remarked  without  exaggeration  :  "  With 
10,000  such  men  our  brother  of  Scotland  might  shake 
the  firmest  throne  in  Europe." 

The  knights  of   Branksome  Hall,  the    poet    tells 
us — with  exaggeration — 

"  Lay  down  to  rest 
With  corslet  laced, 
Pillow'd  on  buckler  cold  and  hard  ; 
They  carv'd  at  the  meal 
With  gloves  of  steel, 
And  they  drank  the  red  wine  through  the  helmet  barr'd." 

Particularly  barbarous  and  rude  were  the  middle  and 
western  marches,  where  agriculture  gradually  became 
disused.  Although  numerous  strong  castles  guarded 
these  regions,  each  individual  had  to  be  in  many  ways 
his  own  policeman,  and  there  were  developed,  in  very 
early  times,  castellated  manor-houses  and  the  peculiar 
strongholds  known  as  pele  towers,  Norman  keeps  on  a 
small  scale.  Into  the  "  barnkyn,"  or  wooden  palisade 
surrounding  these  peles,  the  neighbouring  herdsmen 
drove  their  cattle,  when  the  lights  flashing  from  tower  to 
tower  along  the  march  told  of  an  enemy's  coming  raid. 
The  Bishops  of  Carlisle  probably  lived  in  their 
cathedral  city  in  the  twelfth  century.      In  12 17,  when 

o 


242       EPISCOPAL  PALACES   OF   YORK 

Carlisle  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Scots,  the  Government 
of  Henry  III.  wrote  to  the  Archbishop  of  York  to 
beseech  him  to  improve  the  state  of  the  Church  of 
Carlisle,  as  "the  bishop  is  in  the  utmost  need,  and 
hardly  has  where  to  lay  his  head."  Four  years  later 
Bishop  Hugh  of  Carlisle  had  leave  to  take  twenty 
oaks  in  the  Forest  of  Inglewood  for  building  his 
houses  at  Carlisle,  and  in  1230  Henry  III.  granted 
Walter  Mauclerk,  then  bishop,  the  old  barony  of 
Dalston,  that  is,  the  manor  of  Dalston,  the  advowson 
of  the  church,  the  whole  soke  with  the  woods  and 
mills  and  the  forest.  In  this  grant  the  manor  of 
Rose,  or  La  Rose  as  it  was  then  called,  was  no  doubt 
included,  for  in  this  year  Geoffrey  de  la  Rose,  servant 
of  the  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  is  mentioned  in  a  patent  roll. 
This  mention  of  Geoffrey  has  not  been  hitherto  noticed, 
and  dates  the  bishop's  house  earlier  back  than  diocesan 
historians  have  thought.  Moreover,  although  it  is 
possible  that  the  bishop  had  already  built  a  manor- 
house  here,  the  mention  in  1230,  the  year  of  his  ac- 
quirement of  Dalston,  makes  it  more  probable  that 
he  had  merely  taken  over  an  existing  building  on  the 
site.  Camden  assigns  a  Roman  station  to  this  spot. 
"  Rose  Castle,"  he  says,  "  is  probably  on  the  site  of 
Congavata,  where  the  second  cohort  of  the  Sergi  kept 
guard,  for  Congavata  signifies  in  British  '  the  valley  of 
the  Gavata,'  now  contracted  into  Caude." 

As  England  did  not  yet  comprise  Cumberland, 
there  is  no  Domesday  record  for  these  parts,  and  we 
do  not  know  if  the  manor  of  La  Rose  existed  in  Saxon 
or  Norman  times;  and  this  casual  allusion  in  1230 
seems  to  be  the  earliest  hint  of  its  existence. 

The  episcopal  residence  throughout  the  thirteenth 
century,  however,  was  chiefly  at  Linstock,  a  place  about 
two  miles  away  from  Carlisle,  in  the  parish  of  Stanwix. 


ROSE   CASTLE  243 


Here  Bishop  Irton  died  in  1292  ;  here  in  1294  Bishop 
Halton  entertained  the  Archbishop  of  York  and  his 
suite;  and  here  Edward  I.  and  his  second  wife, 
Margaret  of  France,  were  guests  in  1307. 

The  bishops  had  also  a  house  at  Newcastle,  and 
they  acquired  in  the  fourteenth  century  residences  far 
away  at  Horncastle  in  Lincolnshire  and  at  Melbourne 
in  Derbyshire,  where  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  they 
were  accustomed  to  fly  for  shelter  when  Scottish  in- 
vasions made  their  chief  seat  untenable.  Bishop  Irton 
was  resident  at  Rose  in  1282,  and  a  man  was  im- 
prisoned here  on  a  charge  of  murder  in  1287.  From 
nth  September  to  15th  October  1300  Edward  L 
made  it  his  headquarters ;  Queen  Margaret  stayed 
here,  and  from  here  the  king  issued  the  writs  for 
his  famous  Parliament  at  Lincoln. 

The  first  bishop  of  this  see,  ^Ethelwulf,  Prior  of 
Nostell  in  Yorkshire,  and  confessor  of  Henry  L,  in- 
augurated the  connection  of  the  bishopric  with  Border 
history.  In  1136  Stephen  had  to  appease  David  I.  by 
giving  the  earldom  of  Carlisle  to  his  son  Henry,  and 
the  Scots  drove  out  Bishop  ^thelwulf,  and  made 
Carlisle  the  point  of  support  for  their  ravages  into 
Tynedale  and  Yorkshire.  iEthelwulf  appealed  to  the 
papal  legate,  who  went  with  him  to  Carlisle  and  per- 
suaded David  to  restore  him  ;  but  after  his  restoration 
T^lthelwulf  found  it  expedient  to  conduct  himself  as  a 
nominee  of  David  rather  than  of  Stephen, 

The  existence  of  ^thelwulf's  successor,  Bernard 
(1156-86),  was  questioned  by  Le  Neve  and  others, 
because,  during  the  subsequent  vacancy  of  the  see, 
its  custody  was  for  some  time  given  to  the  foreign 
prelate,  Bernard,  Archbishop  of  Ragusa  or  Sclavonia, 
and  it  has  been  thought  that  there  had  been  no  Bishop 
Bernard    but    the    latter.       As    Chancellor   Ferguson, 


244       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

however,  points  out,  there  are  charters  by  Bishop 
Bernard  of  Carlisle  in  the  registers  of  the  religious 
houses  of  Wetheral  and  Lanercost  long  before  the 
date  at  which  the  custody  of  the  bishopric  was  given 
to  Archbishop  Bernard. 

The  whole  history  of  the  bishopric  during  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  might  almost  be 
given  in  a  list  of  Border  raids.  William  the  Lion 
vainly  besieged  Carlisle  during  Bernard's  episcopacy, 
in  his  invasion  of  1173-74.  Henry  IL  was  at  Car- 
lisle in  1 1  86,  the  year  of  Bernard's  death,  and  offered 
the  see  to  Paulinus  of  Leeds,  who  declined  it,  although 
the  king  offered  to  raise  its  revenues  by  300  marks 
yearly,  and  the  vacancy  lasted  (not  counting  an  ex- 
communicated clerk  elected  by  the  Chapter)  until 
1 2 19.  In  1200  King  John  granted  its  revenues  to 
the  above-named  Archbishop  of  Sclavonia,  in  1205 
gave  them  to  Alexander  de  Lucy,  and  in  12 14  first  to 
Aymery,  Archdeacon  of  Durham,  and  then  to  the 
Prior  of  Carlisle. 

Alexander  II.  of  Scotland  in  12 16  captured  Carlisle, 
and  the  English  Government  wrote  to  the  Archbishop 
of  York  to  complain  that  the  canons  of  Carlisle  (sub- 
sequently fori  these  wrong-doings  substituted  by  more 
amenable  prebendaries)  were  adherents  of  the  King  of 
Scots  and  of  other  enemies  of  the  realm,  had  submitted 
to  Alexander  IL  and  paid  him  fealty,  although  he  was 
interdicted  and  excommunicated,  and  at  his  instance 
had  chosen  an  excommunicated  clerk  as  their  bishop, 
although  it  was  so  important  to  England  that  the 
head  of  this  Border  Church  should  be  a  friend  ;  and  the 
archbishop  was  besought  to  improve  the  state  of  this 
Church,  "  as  no  suitable  person  can  be  found  to  take 
that  bishopric."  The  papal  legate  Gualo  ended  the 
long  vacancy  in  12 19  by  appointing  one  of  the  many 


ROSE   CASTLE  245 


foreigners  who  were  to  hold  English  sees  during  the 
reign  of  Henry  111. — Hugh,  Abbot  of  Beaulieu  in 
Burgundy,  Bishop  Hugh  was  one  of  the  sureties  for 
the  truce  made  at  York  between  Henry  III.  and  Alex- 
ander II.  Directed,  no  doubt,  by  the  Archbishop  of 
York,  who  had  been  requested  by  the  king  to  dis- 
possess the  canons  of  Carlisle  in  favour  of  the  new 
prebendaries,  he  won  this  epitaph  from  the  hand  of  a 
neighbouring  monk  at  Lanercost  Priory :  "  Hugh, 
Bishop  of  Carlisle,  who  cruelly  dispersed  the  chapter 
of  that  church  and  fraudulently  divided  its  possessions, 
died  of  surfeit  {ingurgitatus)  by  the  judgment  of  God 
at  the  abbey  of  La  Feste,  in  Burgundy,  as  he  was 
returning  home  from  the  Roman  Court,  without 
viaticum  and  miserably,  on  Ascension  Sunday."  The 
cause  of  this  uncharitable  judgment,  suggests  Hutchin- 
son {History  of  Cumberland),  was  that  the  bishop,  soon 
after  his  accession  to  the  see,  had  caused  the  convent 
of  Lanercost  to  relinquish  a  reserved  rent,  issuing  out 
of  the  church  of  Burgh-upon-Sands,  as  not  having 
been  obtained  by  canonical  rules. 

Walter  Mauclerk,  who  succeeded  in  1223,  was 
presumably  the  first  episcopal  owner  of  La  Rose.  A 
prebendary  of  Carlisle  and  also  Sheriff  of  Cumberland  at 
the  time  of  his  nomination  (those  were  the  days  of  mixed 
functions),  he  continued  to  hold  the  latter  office  after 
he  had  received  the  episcopate.  He  had  been  John's 
ambassador  to  Rome  when  the  case  between  the  king 
and  the  barons  was  set  before  the  Pope,  and  was  subse- 
quently high  in  Henry  III.'s  favour.  He  was  made 
treasurer  in  1232,  but  shortly  afterwards  fell  into 
disgrace  through  the  intrigues,  it  is  thought,  of  Peter, 
Bishop  of  Winchester.  Walter  Mauclerk  set  out  for 
Rome  to  appeal  to  the  Pope  because  he  was  deprived 
of  the  office  of  treasurer  of  certain  custodies  previously 


246       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

granted  him  by  the  king  and  £100  in  silver;  but  was 
arrested  by  the  king's  officers  on  board  a  vessel  at  Dover. 
The  Bishop  of  London,  who  was  a  witness  to  this  out- 
rage, excommunicated  all  concerned  in  it.  Mauclerk 
ultimately  regained  the  king's  favour,  but  he  resigned 
his  bishopric  in  1246  and  became  a  Preaching  Friar 
at  Oxford,  where  he  worthily  ended  his  days  in  1248. 
His  successor,  Sylvester  de  Everdon,  was  the  first 
but  not  the  last  Bishop  of  Carlisle  to  give  way  to  the 
weakness  of  adjnonishing  kings.  Bishop  Merks  is 
said  to  have  wasted  his  advice  on  Richard  II.,  as 
Ussher  did  on  Charles  I.  Everdon  had  been  Henry 
III.'s  chancellor,  and  hesitated  to  take  this  bishopric 
when  it  was  offered  him  in  1246,  being,  as  he  said 
("  and  probably  not  without  cause,"  remarks  his  bio- 
grapher), unworthy,  but  finally  made  up  his  mind  to 
accept  it.  Rather  unaccountably,  he  and  Boniface, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury — the  queen's  uncle  and  a 
Savoyard,  who  spent  nearly  all  his  time  in  Savoy  and 
merely  collected  the  revenues  of  his  English  see — with 
Aymer  de  Valence,  the  Bishop-elect  of  Winchester,  a 
Lusignan,  half-brother  to  the  king,  whose  election  was 
long  opposed  and  caused  general  scandal,  and  William 
Bingham,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  an  unlearned  bishop,  con- 
sented to  be  deputies  from  the  bishops  to  the  king,  re- 
questing him  to  respect  the  liberties  of  the  English 
Church,  particularly  in  the  matter  of  elections.  As 
angry  as  he  was  no  doubt  surprised,  Henry  III.  answered, 
according  to  Matthew  Paris,  that  the  charge  was  true ; 
he  grieved  for  it,  and  was  repentant.  Moreover,  he 
would  correct  his  past  errors  and  commit  no  wrong  in 
future.  Canterbury,  Salisbury,  and  Winchester,  were  all 
unworthy  men  whom  he  had  raised,  and  they  were  his 
accomplices,  and  had  better  resign  to  save  their  souls. 
Turning   to   Everdon   he  said,   "And   you,  Sylvester 


ROSE   CASTLE  247 


Carlisle,  who  for  a  long  time  were  in  the  Chancery,  it 
is  well  known  to  all  that  you  were  the  least  of  my 
clerks,  although  I  have  preferred  you  to  be  bishop  over 
many  theologians  and  reverend  persons."  He  wound 
up  by  bidding  them  all  "  Repent  and  resign  lest  you 
should  be  eternally  damned  ;  and  I,  chastened  and  saved 
by  such  an  example,  will  henceforth  take  care  to  pro- 
mote no  unworthy  person." 

Succeeding  kings  were  of  no  finer  material ;  and  it 
is  doubtful  if  Bishop  Merks  (whose  story  will  be 
related  further  on)  might  with  safety,  even  if  he  had 
been  so  inclined,  have  made  the  speech  he  is  purported 
to  have  made  to  Richard  II. 

The  four  bishops  refrained  from  resigning  their 
charges,  but  seven  years  later  Sylvester  de  Everdon 
fell  from  his  horse  and  broke  his  neck.  Thomas 
de  Vipont,  a  member  of  the  family  of  the  Earls  of 
Westmorland,  was  bishop  from  1255  to  1258.  Robert 
de  Chauncy,  his  successor,  had  been  physician  to  Queen 
Eleanor,  and  was  at  the  time  of  his  nomination  to  the 
see  of  Carlisle,  Archbishop  of  Bath.  Like  Walter 
Mauclerk,  he  was  Sheriff  of  Cumberland,  but  had  been 
superseded  in  this  office  by  1272,  when  the  acting 
sheriff  lodged  information  with  the  Lord  Chancellor 
that  the  Bishop  of  Carlisle  had  forbidden  his  tenants 
to  swear  fealty  to  the  king.  The  bishop  successfully 
disproved  this  charge,  and  subsequently,  on  the  occasion 
of  the  sheriff  distraining  the  Abbot  of  Holme  Cultram 
in  his  diocese  for  payments  to  the  Crown,  took  the 
opportunity  of  excommunicating  his  quondam  foe — 
a  short-lived  satisfaction,  for  the  excommunication  was 
revoked  by  a  writ  of  prohibition.  He  won  the  good 
word  of  his  neighbours  at  Lanercost,  who  pronounced 
him  to  be  "  an  ardent  upholder  of  the  dignity  of  the 
Church,  a  lover  of  mankind,  prompt  to  do  kindness. 


248       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

and,  as  the  whole  world  could  attest,  open-handed  and 
generous."  On  Chauncy's  death  in  1278  the  canons 
of  Carlisle  elected  William  de  Rotherfield,  Dean  of 
York,  to  be  bishop,  but  again  the  offer  of  this  see 
was  rejected.  The  prior  and  convent  thereupon, 
without  waiting  for  a  second  conge  d'ilire  from  the 
king,  elected  Ralph  de  Irton,  Prior  of  Guisborough, 
and  were  consequently  summoned  to  pay  500  marks 
to  the  king  for  this  irregularity.  The  matter  was 
ultimately  referred  to  the  Pope,  who  quashed  the 
election  as  uncanonical,  but  proceeded  to  duly  appoint 
Irton,  and  the  king  confirmed  the  election  on  the 
payment  of  ;^ioo  by  the  Chapter.  Ralph  de  Irton 
(bishop  from  1280-92)  was  a  commissioner  for  the 
collection  of  tenths  in  Scotland,  one  of  Edward  I.'s 
commissioners  to  consider  the  matter  of  the  Scottish 
succession,  and  one  of  the  plenipotentiaries  appointed 
to  contract  a  marriage  between  Prince  Edward  of 
Eno-land  and  the  Maid  of  Norway.  He  again  was 
in  no  very  good  odour  with  the  monks  of  Lanercost ; 
and  when,  in  1280,  the  clergy  of  the  diocese  granted 
the  bishop  the  tenths  of  their  churches  for  two  years, 
the  monkish  scribe  broke  out  into  Latin  verse  on 
their  wrongs :  "  Desolate  flock,  long  time "  (two 
years)  "  widowed  of  a  pastor,  he  ought  to  nourish, 
not  to  fleece  you  !  Desolate  flock,  ill-fed,  you  ought 
now  to  be  comforted,  not  oppressed!"  and  at  the 
bishop's  death,  after  a  long  bitter  journey  in  the  snow 
from  the  Parliament  in  London  to  his  palace  at  Lin- 
stock, the  scribe  wrote  for  his  epitaph  :  "  A  clever  and 
prudent  man,  and  very  avaricious,  who  turned  visitations 
of  his  churches  into  wells  of  profit  for  himself,  and 
dishonestly  extorted  every  year  throughout  his  diocese 
a  mulct  from  simple  priests  for  completing  the  fabric 
of  the  great  church  of  his  see." 


ROSE   CASTLE  249 


John  Halton,  Prior  of  Carlisle,  who  was  appointed 
bishop  in  1292,  took  a  great  part  in  Edward's  Scottish 
wars,  was  sent  many  times  as  ambassador  to  Scotland, 
and  in  1297  was  appointed  Warden  of  Carlisle  Castle, 
an  office  he  held  for  many  years.  In  revenge  for 
Edward  I.'s  doings  at  Berwick,  a  Scottish  army  had 
crossed  the  English  Border,  ravaged  Redesdale  and 
Tynedale,  burned  the  monasteries  of  Lanercost  and 
Hexham  and  the  surrounding  villages,  and  driven 
home  a  great  booty.  Edward,  however,  marched 
forward,  won  his  great  victory  at  Dunbar,  and  soon 
had  all  Scotland  at  his  feet  and  all  its  fortresses  in 
his  hands.  Robert  Bruce  swore  fealty  on  the  sword 
of  St.  Thomas  in  the  cathedral  of  Carlisle  in  the 
presence  of  Bishop  Halton.  Then  followed  the  War 
of  Scottish  Independence  under  the  leadership  of 
Wallace,  who  won  back  the  whole  of  Scotland  within 
the  twelvemonth,  only  to  lose  it  again  by  1304  and 
his  life  in  1305;  but  under  Robert  Bruce,  who  was 
crowned  in  1306,  the  Scots  made  a  new  attempt  to 
rescue  their  country.  The  Bishop  of  Carlisle  was  now 
appointed  one  of  the  commissioners  to  absolve  all 
persons  guilty  of  offences  against  the  Scots,  whether 
wounding  the  clergy  or  spoiling  churches ;  and  in 
Carlisle  Cathedral  the  papal  legate.  Cardinal  Petrus  His- 
panus,  "  revested  himselfe  and  the  other  bishops  which 
were  present,  and  then,  with  candels  light  and  causing 
the  bels  to  be  roong,  they  accursed,  in  terrible  wise, 
Robert  Bruce,  the  usurper  of  the  crowne  of  Scotland, 
with  all  his  partakers,  aiders  and  maintainers." 

During  a  truce  in  the  war,  in  13 14,  Edward, 
brother  of  Robert  Bruce,  burst  with  an  army  into  the 
vale  of  the  Eden,  and  stayed  three  days  at  the  bishop's 
house  at  Rose,  while  he  sent  the  greater  part  of  his 
army  to  burn  all  the  surrounding  towns  and  churches, 


250       EPISCOPAL   PALACES  OF   YORK 

take  captives,  and  lead  away  the  cattle  they  should  find 
in  the  Forest  of  Inglewood  and  its  neighbourhood. 
They  struck  no  blow  at  Carlisle,  because  it  was  so  well 
manned.  They  must  have  emptied  the  bishop's  fish- 
ponds and  driven  away  his  deer  in  their  course,  for  in 
1319  Edward  II.  gave  an  order  for  him  to  have  fifty 
pickerels  from  the  king's  lake  of  Ternewathelan,  in 
the  Forest  of  Inglewood,  for  stocking  the  fishponds  at 
La  Rose,  and  to  have  twelve  hinds  and  twelve  does 
from  that  forest  for  stocking  his  park  there,  as  these 
had  been  destroyed  by  the  Scots.  "  The  Scots  did  all 
these  evils,"  writes  the  Lanercost  chronicler,  revealing 
the  audacity  of  Scottish  hopes,  "  because  the  men  of 
that  border  would  not  pay  them  tribute."  In  con- 
sideration of  the  great  services  and  sufferings  of  the 
aged  bishop,  he  was  allowed  in  131 8  to  appropriate 
the  church  of  Horncastle  in  Lincolnshire,  which  was 
of  his  gift,  that  he  and  his  successors  during  the 
Scottish  raids  might  have  a  haven  of  refuge  and  be 
able  to  support  themselves.  John  Halton  was  one  of 
the  plenipotentiaries  to  treat  with  Robert  Bruce  in 
1320;  but  in  the  following  year  Bruce  led  a  new 
invasion  of  England,  and  began  by  again  laying  waste 
Cumberland.  He  burned  all  AUerdale,  the  bishop's 
house  at  Rose  was  again  given  to  the  flames,  and  he 
spoiled  the  monastery  at  Holme  Cultram,  "  although 
his  father's  body  was  buried  there."  At  Lancaster, 
where  he  sacked  the  religious  houses  of  the  Domini- 
cans and  Franciscans,  he  was  joined  by  another  army 
under  the  Earl  of  Murray  and  Lord  James  Douglas, 
and  together  they  plundered  and  burned  until  they 
came  round  again  to  Carlisle,  which  they  surrounded 
for  five  days,  "trampling  down  and  laying  waste  by 
themselves  and  their  animals  as  much  of  the  corn  as 
they  could,"  and  returned  to  Scotland  after  a  successful 


ROSE   CASTLE  251 


circular  tour  of  rather  over  three  weeks.  Edward  11. 's 
Invasion  in  1322  found  the  country  still  desolate,  and 
moreover  Robert  Bruce  repeated  his  raid  in  this  year. 

The  temptation  to  Bishop  Halton  to  secede  to  the 
Scottish  side  must  have  been  almost  as  great  as  that  to 
which  his  predecessor  had  succumbed,  as  is  shown  by 
the  case  of  Andrew  de  Harcla,  who,  having  defended 
Carlisle  against  Bruce  in  131 5,  and  been  created  Earl 
of  Carlisle  by  the  king  in  reward  for  his  valour  and 
loyalty,  finally  deserted  to  King  Robert.  The  ven- 
geance of  Edward  II.,  however,  soon  fell,  and  Harcla, 
betrayed,  met  the  horrible  fate  of  treason.  He  was 
hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered  ;  one  quarter  was  sus- 
pended from  the  top  of  the  tower  of  Carlisle,  another 
from  the  top  of  the  tower  of  Newcastle,  a  third  on 
York  Bridge,  a  fourth  at  Shrewsbury,  while  his  head 
was  reserved  to  adorn  London  Bridge.  In  the  month 
of  Harcla's  death,  March  1323,  a  truce  for  thirteen 
years  was  made  between  England  and  Scotland. 

Besides  all  the  bishop's  troubles  with  the  Scots,  he 
had  his  mansion  outside  the  north  gate  of  Newcastle 
thrown  down  by  the  bailiffs  and  burgesses  of  that  town 
in  1298,  and  they  took  a  piece  of  his  land  for  the  town 
ditch.  He  died  in  1324,  and  the  Chapter  of  Carlisle 
proceeded  to  elect  William  Airmin,  Canon  of  York ; 
but  the  Pope  set  aside  their  election,  and  appointed 
John  Roos  (or  Ross).  Bishop  Roos  complained  that 
he  had  no  residence  capable  of  accommodating  himself 
and  his  household.  The  clergy  of  the  whole  bishopric 
were  in  1327  discharged  the  payment  of  all  dues  to 
the  Crown  for  tenths  owing  to  their  impoverishment 
from  Scottish  inroads,  for  the  Scots  had  taken  advan- 
tage of  the  death  of  Edward  II,  to  make  a  new 
invasion,  despite  the  truce.  England  acknowledged 
the     independence    of    Scotland     by    the    Treaty    of 


252       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF  YORK 

Northampton,  but  this  treaty  was  repudiated  by 
Edward  III.  on  attaining  his  majority,  and  he  adopted 
the  Scottish  policy  of  his  grandfather.  On  the  death 
of  Robert  Bruce  in  1329  he  recognised  Edward  Balliol 
as  King  of  Scotland,  and  sent  an  English  force  to  help 
him  to  obtain  possession  of  his  kingdom.  The  English 
victories  of  Dupplin  Moor  and  Halidon  Hill  followed, 
and  besides  supremacy  over  the  whole  of  Scotland 
Edward  obtained  for  himself  the  Border  counties, 
with  Haddington,  Edinburgh,  and  Linlithgow.  The 
opposition  of  the  Scots  to  Balliol,  however,  was  so 
general  that  he  had  soon  to  take  refuge  in  England, 
and  beseech  help  from  his  overlord.  Bishop  Roos 
died  at  Rose  in  1332.  He  is  remembered  as  having 
ill-treated  the  prior  and  convent  of  Carlisle,  seizing 
their  rents  and  appropriations,  and  on  a  trivial  pretext 
excommunicating  the  prior.  He  was  succeeded  by 
this  prior,  John  de  Kirkby,  the  great  warrior-prelate 
of  Carlisle. 

John  de  Kirkby 's  episcopal  parts  were  quite  thrown 
into  the  shade  by  his  military  gifts,  although,  like 
Robert  de  Chauncy,  he  probably  fulfilled  this  most 
important  duty  of  a  mediaeval  bishop,  the  keeping  up 
of  a  great  hospitality.  One  can  imagine  that  armed  re- 
tainers sat  at  his  table  on  the  dais  as  in  some  baronial 
hall,  and  that  "  the  sheep  and  the  beeves  and  the 
kine  "  that  smoked  on  his  board  may  have  quite  well 
been,  like  the  repasts  of  the  neighbouring  lairds  and 
lords,  driven  over  from  the  opposite  border.  He  in 
1336  obtained  the  king's  leave  to  fortify  his  house  at 
La  Rose,  but  perhaps  never  availed  himself  of  it,  as 
will  be  explained  later.  He  mounted  a  Cumberland 
nag  in  1337,  and  led  a  contingent  to  aid  in  an  English 
raid  into  Teviotdale  and  Nithsdale,  where  he  burnt  and 
laid  waste  in  a  thorough  manner  for  twelve  days,  when. 


ROSE   CASTLE  253 


vehement  rains  and  floods  preventing  its  further  pro- 
gress, the  whole  party  returned  merrily  to  Carlisle. 
For  this  deed,  we  are  told,  the  Scots  held  the  Bishop 
of  Carlisle  in  the  greatest  detestation,  and,  in  their 
return  raid,  turned  aside,  after  burning  the  hospital  of 
St.  Nicholas  in  the  suburbs  of  Carlisle,  to  burn  the 
bishop's  manor  at  Rose  "  and  everything  on  their  way 
there." 

The  luck  of  the  Scots  had,  for  a  short  spell, 
turned.  Edward  III.  was  engaged  in  France,  and  not 
only  did  they  manage  to  win  back  many  of  their 
strongholds,  but  to  do  a  good  deal  of  damage  on  the 
English  borders. 

In  the  year  of  David  II. 's  return  to  Scotland,  John  de 
Kirkby,  who  was  by  this  time  a  warden  of  the  marches, 
was  again  pardoned  payments  to  the  exchequer  for 
tenths,  "  in  consideration  of  his  unwearied  labours  and 
heavy  losses  in  the  king's  service "  in  this  office. 
Soon  after,  however,  David's  army  was  defeated,  and 
he  captured,  at  the  Battle  of  Neville's  Cross  ;  and  in 
1345  the  indefatigable  Bishop  Kirkby  helped  to  raise  the 
siege  of  Edinburgh,  then  in  English  hands,  and  assisted 
in  repelling  an  invasion  of  Cumberland.  In  a  fray  in  the 
latter  the  bishop  was  unhorsed,  but  managed  to  mount 
again  and  put  the  foe  to  flight.  In  the  following  year, 
nevertheless,  the  greater  part  of  Cumberland,  again 
including  Lanercost  Priory  and  the  unfortunate  manor 
of  Rose,  was  burnt  and  destroyed  by  the  enemy. 
Bishop  Kirkby  cannot  have  been  a  very  edifying,  and 
was  probably  a  very  rough,  possibly  a  very  extortionate 
bishop.  Anyway,  like  Bishop  Halton,  he  had  his 
enemies  at  home.  He  and  his  suite  were  attacked  by 
his  flock  at  Penrith  in  1333,  and  four  years  later  were 
mobbed  and  wounded  by  rioters  in  the  suburbs  of 
Carlisle    at     Caldewstones.     On    his    death    in    1352 


254       EPISCOPAL   PALACES  OF  YORK 

another  dispute  sprang  up  as  to  the  nomination  to 
the  see.  The  Chapter  obtained  the  king's  licence  in 
the  regular  way,  and  elected  John  de  Horncastle  ;  but 
the  Pope  consecrated  Gilbert  de  Welton,  whose  ap- 
pointment was  confirmed  by  the  king. 

Edward  III.  in  1355  proclaimed  himself  the  suc- 
cessor of  Balliol,  and  made  the  invasion  remembered  as 
his  "Burned  Candlemas"  in  the  Lowlands  of  Scot- 
land; and  in  1356,  anticipating  Scottish  reprisals, 
Gilbert  de  Welton  obtained  from  the  king  the  second 
licence  to  fortify  Rose,  which  is  from  this  time  called 
a  castle.  The  facts  that  in  1 346  the  Scots  were  said 
to  burn  the  "manor"  not  the  castle  of  Rose,  and  that, 
even  if  Bishop  Kirkby  had  commenced  the  work  of 
fortification,  it  was  probably  thrown  down  at  this  time, 
rather  point  to  Strickland's  Tower  having  been  for- 
tified by  Bishop  Welton,  not  by  Bishop  Kirkby.  Chan- 
cellor Ferguson,  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Cumberland 
and  Westmorland  Archaological  Society^  has  given  an 
account  of  the  architectural  history  of  Rose  Castle 
(in  which,  however,  he  says  that  Bishop  Kirkby's  work 
of  defence  was  "  doubtless  continued  by  his  successor, 
Gilbert  Welton"),  and  as  these  Border  manor-houses 
were  all  much  of  the  same  form,  we  can  make  some 
sort  of  a  picture  of  what  Rose  Castle  must  have  been 
like  at  this  time.  The  Strickland  Tower  still  shows 
all  the  features  of  the  old  Border  pele-tower.  They 
were  complete  houses  in  themselves,  and  were  usually 
composed  of  three  stories  of  but  one  room  in  each, 
and  there  was  no  communication  between  the  outside 
and  the  ground  floor  excepting  through  a  trap-door  in 
the  usually  vaulted  roof  of  the  latter.  This  ground 
floor  had  no  other  openings  than  loopholes,  was  only 
used  for  storage,  or  a  dungeon,  and  could  only  be 
entered  by  the  foe  by  making  a  breach  in  its  massive 


ROSE   CASTLE  255 

walls.  Once  in,  the  invader  would  proceed  to  smoke 
out  the  occupants  of  the  upper  stories.  The  owner 
and  his  family  entered  at  the  first  floor,  which  was 
sometimes  reached  by  a  long  ladder  drawn  in  after 
them,  sometimes  by  an  external  stone  staircase.  To- 
day a  very  beautiful  stone  stairway  leads  from  Paradise 
Walk  at  Rose  Castle  to  the  ivy-clad  Strickland  Tower. 
This  first-floor  room  filled  even  more  than  the  place 
of  the  great  hall  of  a  mediaeval  house.  It  was  the 
general  eating  and  dwelling  room,  kitchen,  and  servants' 
bedroom  ;  and  moreover,  as  in  the  Strickland  Tower, 
often  had  a  recessed  bay  that  served  as  an  oratory. 
A  piscina  for  holy  water  in  the  wall  of  the  recess  still 
marks  its  purpose.  The  room  above  was  a  sleeping- 
room  for  the  family  and  a  state  reception  room.  Above 
all  was  a  small  circular  watch-tower  that  soared  like  a 
fine  chimney-stack  over  the  rest  of  the  building. 
The  top  of  the  containing  wall  was  fretted  by  crenel- 
lations  or  embrasures,  through  which  missiles  or 
molten  lead  might  be  poured  down  on  the  enemy ; 
and  the  windows  throughout  were  often  merely 
loopholes. 

These  towers  were  frequently  found  outside,  but 
not  connected  with,  fourteenth-century  houses,  and  to 
them  the  family  took  their  last  retreat,  and  there  made 
their  last  stand  against  the  invader.  The  wooden 
palisade  of  earlier  times  was  replaced  by  trenches,  or 
deep  wide  moats  round  thick  stone  walls  embattled  like 
the  towers.  The  only  approach  was  by  the  drawbridge 
let  down  from  an  embattled  entrance-gate,  where  the 
warder  kept  watch  from  his  room  over  the  gate. 
Other  towers  were  built  on  the  wall,  and  the  whole 
was  often  again  surrounded  by  another  wall  with 
towers,  drawbridge,  and  moat.  During  the  thirteenth 
and   fourteenth    centuries,    however,    the   house  itself 


256       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

developed,  and  tended  to  be  built  right  round  a  quad- 
rangular courtyard.  The  most  important  room  in  the 
house  was  the  hall,  so  important  that  it  became  the 
generic  name  for  manor-houses.  In  it  was  lived  the 
promiscuous  domestic  life  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It 
commonly  occupied  the  whole  height  of  the  building, 
and  was  in  the  centre  of  the  principal  front,  opposite 
you  as  you  entered  the  courtyard  under  the  gateway. 
In  the  smaller  rooms  there  were  fireplaces,  but  the  hall 
was  lighted  by  a  great  fire  in  the  middle  of  the  room 
with  an  outlet  for  smoke  in  the  roof.  The  stone  or 
tiled  floor  was  covered  with  straw  or  rushes,-on  which 
the  servants  or  strangers  who  received  the  hospitality 
of  the  house  slept  at  night.  At  one  end  of  the  hall 
was  the  da'is  where  the  chief  dining-table  was  set. 
Long  tables  stood  against  the  two  sides ;  and  over  the 
screen  that  separated  the  hall  from  the  entrance  passage 
at  the  servants'  end  was  a  minstrel's  gallery.  The  hall 
at  Rose  Castle  in  the  fourteenth  century  was  to  the 
south  of  the  Strickland  Tower  and  to  the  east  of  the 
courtyard.  On  the  north  side  of  the  courtyard  was 
the  council  chamber,  called  Great  Paradise,  with  a  room 
or  cellar  under.  To  the  west  of  this  council  chamber 
was  the  chapel  in  its  present  position,  with  the  con- 
stable's tower  and  portcullis  beyond.  On  the  south 
side  of  the  courtyard  were  the  kitchen  and  offices. 
These  buildings  all  stood  within  the  inner  wall,  and 
were  surrounded  by  an  outer  turreted  wall,  in  which 
was  the  gatehouse,  that  is  still  standing,  though  the 
warder's  room  is  gone.  The  whole  was  surrounded 
by  a  moat,  and  a  fountain  in  the  centre  of  the  court- 
yard supplied  the  inhabitants  with  water.  The  informal 
"  Old  English  Garden  "  was  a  great  feature  in  the 
precincts  of  fourteenth-century  manor-houses,  but  it  is 
unlikely  that  Bishop   Kirkby   or  Bishop  Welton  cul- 


ROSE   CASTLE  257 

tivated   rose  and   lily,    hollyhock  and   peony,  for  the 
ever-present  foe  to  trample  under  foot. 

Bishop  Welton  was  one  of  the  commissioners  ap- 
pointed to  treat  for  the  ransom  of  King  David  of 
Scotland;  in  1359  he  was  a  warden  of  the  western 
marches,  and  in  1360-61  a  commissioner  in  the 
negotiations  to  establish  peace  between  England  and 
Scotland.  On  Welton's  death  the  prebendaries  of 
Carlisle,  again  with  the  king's  licence,  elected  one  of 
their  number,  Thomas  de  Appleby,  and  again  the  Pope 
declared  the  election  void,  but  then,  as  his  predecessor 
had  done  in  the  case  of  Irton,  himself,  in  1363,  ap- 
pointed Appleby.  Bishop  Appleby  also  was  a  warden 
of  the  western  marches,  and  a  commissioner  for  pro- 
claiming on  the  Borders  the  articles  of  a  truce  with 
France  and  Scotland. 

Owing  to  Edward  III.'s  difficulties  in  France, 
a  truce  of  fourteen  years  was  made  in  1369  between 
England  and  Scotland,  and  it  was  renewed  in  1380; 
but  Border  forays  still  kept  war  smouldering  until 
it  was  stirred  up  again  in  1385  by  an  invasion  of 
Richard  II.  and  a  simultaneous  Scottish  invasion  of 
Cumberland.  Both  parties  laid  waste  all  the  country 
behind  them,  and  as  the  Borderers,  according  to  their 
custom,  retired  with  their  cattle  and  household  goods 
into  their  forests  and  morasses,  the  English  army  had 
shortly  to  retire  for  lack  of  provender,  and  was  reduced 
to  a  state  of  famine  before  it  saw  again  the  green 
valleys  of  Yorkshire, 

Richard  II.  after  this  was  busy  enough  at  home, 
and  Border  affairs  were  abandoned  to  the  Percies, 
whose  whole  energies  were  employed  in  keeping  at 
bay  the  Douglases.  In  the  famous  skirmish  at 
Otterbourne  "  proud  Percy "  was  led  captive  away, 
and  Earl  Douglas,  though  slain,  won  the  day  by  his 

R 


258       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

name.  After  this  fight  until  the  accession  of 
Henry  IV,,  England  and  Scotland  were  technically 
at  peace,  but  Henry  IV,,  immediately  after  his  ac- 
cession, invaded  Scotland  to  obtain  the  homage  of 
Robert  III,  ;  and  the  replies  of  the  Scots  soon  gave 
the  Percies  an  opportunity  to  revenge  at  Hamildon 
Hill  the  shame  of  Otterbourne, 

In  1406  came  the  capture  of  Prince  James  of  Scot- 
land by  Henry  IV,,  and  occasional  raids  took  place 
until  James  was  released  on  the  death  of  Henry  V, 
The  Scots  throughout  the  fifteenth  century  helped  the 
enemies  of  England,  however,  and  Border  life  con- 
tinued much  on  its  old  plan. 

On  Bishop  Appleby's  death  in  1395  the  persistent 
Chapter  elected  William  Strickland,  but  were  com- 
pelled to  accept  instead,  in  1396,  Robert  Reed,  Bishop 
of  Dromore,  a  Dominican  friar,  who,  however,  was 
translated  in  the  same  year  to  the  see  of  Chichester, 
and  gave  place  to  the  monk  of  Westminster,  Thomas 
Merks.  Almost  as  plainly  as  the  Strickland  Tower, 
the  magnificent  rose-gardens  of  Rose  Castle  tell  one 
side  of  the  history  of  the  bishop's  house.  The  first 
bishop  who  came  into  possession  probably  adorned  it 
with  carved  and  painted  roses,  the  symbol  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  patron  saint  of  his  church  of  Carlisle, 
and  so  the  house  came  to  be  called  La  Rose,  for  there 
is  no  better  explanation  of  its  name.  Old  writers  have 
suggested  that  this  was  given  from  the  British  name 
Rhos,  a  marshy  place,  or  from  the  sweetness  of  its 
situation,  or  from  the  colour  of  its  walls.  Rose,  how- 
ever, is  not  situated  in  a  marshy  place ;  the  second 
guess  is  a  little  far-fetched  ;  and  in  the  third  case  we 
should  have  almost  expected  it  to  be  called  the  Red  Rose, 
for  roses  are  not  confined  to  one  colour.  Uncommon 
as  was  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  practice,  now  so  usual, 


ROSE   CASTLE  259 

of  calling  houses  by  fancy  names,  the  almost  disused 
custom  of  christening  rooms  was  common  ;  and  Rose 
in  1230  was  little  more  than  a  room.  A  sculptured 
flower  on  the  fourteenth-century  gateway  announces  its 
title,  and  to-day  the  gardens  are  full  of  the  device. 
The  hedge  of  York  and  Lancaster  roses,  which,  says 
Canon  Venables,  "  can  never  be  forgotten  by  those 
who  have  been  fortunate  enough  to  see  them  in  their 
July  glory,"  recalls  to  the  learned  eye,  in  the  same  way 
as  the  border  of  a  mediaeval  manuscript  recalled  the 
illustrated  history  to  the  unlearned  eye,  the  tale  of  the 
semi-mythical  Bishop  Merks,  the  prophet  of  the  Wars 
of  the  Roses.  This  prelate,  probably  one  of  the  most 
evil  influences  on  the  life  of  the  reckless  and  irrespon- 
sible Richard  II.,  is  described  in  three  chronicles  as  the 
king's  companion  in  his  most  dissolute  ways,  "  in  pota- 
tionibus  et  aliis  non  dicendis."  He  rarely,  probably 
never,  visited  his  diocese,  as  he  was  so  much  employed 
by  the  king  both  in  his  pleasures  at  home  and  in  his 
business  abroad.  The  one  creditable  fact  of  his  life 
preserved  by  history  is  that  he  alone  of  Richard's  sup- 
porters spoke  on  the  king's  behalf  in  the  first  Parlia- 
ment of  Henry  IV.,  when  there  was  question  of  further 
sentence  on  Richard;  and  he  is  at  least  an  exception  to 
this  one  of  his  greatest  panegyrist's  aphorisms — 

"The  evil  that  men  do  lives  after  them, 
The  good  is  oft  interred  with  their  bones ; " 

for,  200  years  after  his  death,  he  was  remembered  only 
as  the  pattern  of  a  loyal  subject.  The  Merks  myth 
seems  to  have  been  first  formed  round  a  doubtful 
nucleus  of  historical  fact  by  the  loyal  subjects  of  the 
Tudors.  It  was  created  by  Walsingham,  mentioned 
by  Hall,  and  Holinshed  invented,  in  the  Thucydidean 
manner,  a   long   speech    for   the    Bishop    of  Carlisle. 


26o      EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

In  the  paraphrase  of  this  speech  in  Shakespeare's 
play,  Richard  II.  (entered  at  Stationers'  Hall  in  1597), 
the  moral  of  loyalty  is  impressively  drawn  :  the  bishop 
braces  the  passive  king  to  fight  for  the  cause  of  royalty, 
with  the  lofty  sentiments  of  some  Becket  or  Wolsey — 

"  My  lord,  wise  men  ne'er  sit  and  wail  their  woes, 
But  presently  prevent  the  ways  to  wail. 

Fear  and  be  slain ;  no  worse  can  come  to  fight, 
And  fight  and  die  is  death  destroying  death ; 
Where  fearing  dying  pays  death  servile  breath." 

Again,     when    Norfolk's    return     is     mentioned, 
Carlisle  has  one  of  the  gems  of  the  play  to  utter — 

"  That  honourable  day  shall  ne'er  be  seen. 
Many  a  time  hath  banish'd  Norfolk  fought 
For  Jesu  Christ  in  glorious  Christian  field, 
Streaming  the  ensign  of  the  Christian  cross 
Against  black  pagans,  Turks  and  Saracens, 
And,  toil'd  with  works  of  war,  retired  himself 
To  Italy ;  and  there  at  Venice  gave 
His  body  to  that  pleasant  country's  earth, 
And  his  pure  soul  unto  his  captain  Christ, 
Under  whose  colours  he  had  fought  so  long." 

Finally,  when  Bolingbroke  announces  his  intention  of 
ascending  "  the  regal  throne,"  the  bishop  makes  his 
famous  speech — 

"  Marry,  God  forbid  ! 
Worst  in  this  royal  presence  may  I  speak, 
Yet  best  beseemeth  me  to  speak  the  truth. 
Would  God  that  any  in  this  noble  presence 
Were  enough  noble  to  be  upright  judge 
Of  noble  Richard  !  then  true  noblesse  would 
Learn  him  forbearance  from  so  foul  a  wrong. 
What  subject  can  give  sentence  on  his  king? 
And  who  sits  here  that  is  not  Richard's  subject  ? 
Thieves  are  not  judged  but  they  are  by  to  hear, 
Although  apparent  guilt  be  seen  in  them ; 
And  shall  the  figure  of  God's  majesty, 


ROSE   CASTLE  261 

His  captain,  steward,  deputy,  elect, 

Anointed,  crowned,  planted  many  years, 

Be  judged  by  subject  and  inferior  breath. 

And  he  himself  not  present  ?     O  forfend  it,  God, 

That  in  a  Christian  climate  souls  refined 

Should  show  so  heinous,  black,  obscene  a  deed ! 

I  speak  to  subjects,  and  a  subject  speaks, 

Stirr'd  up  by  God,  thus  boldly  for  his  king. 

My  Lord  of  Hereford  here,  whom  you  call  king. 

Is  a  foul  traitor  to  proud  Hereford's  king : 

And  if  you  crown  him,  let  me  prophesy, 

The  blood  of  England  shall  manure  the  ground, 

And  future  ages  groan  for  this  foul  act ; 

Peace  shall  go  sleep  with  Turks  and  infidels, 

And  in  this  seat  of  peace  tumultuous  wars 

Shall  kin  with  kin  and  kind  with  kind  confound ; 

Disorder,  horror,  fear  and  mutiny 

Shall  here  inhabit,  and  this  land  be  call'd 

The  field  of  Golgotha  and  dead  men's  skulls. 

O,  if  you  raise  this  house  against  this  house. 

It  will  the  woefullest  division  prove 

That  ever  fell  upon  this  cursed  earth. 

Prevent  it,  resist  it,  let  it  not  be  so, 

Lest  child,  child's  children,  cry  against  you  '  Woe ! ' " 

Political  interest  had  greatly  changed  since  the  days 
of  Bishop  Merks.  Under  Henry  VIII.,  uniting  as  he 
did  the  blood  of  York  and  Lancaster,  there  could  no 
longer  be  any  dispute  about  the  succession,  any  rival  or 
pretender  to  the  Crown.  Encouraged,  almost  enforced, 
by  the  Tudors,  a  universal  loyalty  to  the  monarch 
sprang  up,  and  became  a  religion  that  all  the  mistakes 
of  the  first  two  Stuart  kings  could  not  destroy,  that 
was  only  disabled  when  the  Protestant  revolution 
started  by  Henry  VIII.  overturned  Charles  I.  in  1649, 
and  died  a  hard  death  in  the  cold-blooded  common- 
sensed  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Inspired 
partly  by  time-serving,  partly  by  devotion,  everybody 
referred  to  Queen  Elizabeth  with  Oriental  unctuousness. 
Bishop  Robinson  of  Carlisle,  in  1601,  shortly  after  the 


262      EPISCOPAL  PALACES   OF   YORK 

staging  of  his  great  predecessor,  ended  a  letter  to 
Secretary  Cecil  by  praying  for  the  preservation  of  "  the 
spring  of  our  joy  and  breath  of  our  nostrils." 

Nevertheless,  so  afraid  was  Queen  Elizabeth  of 
similar  plots  against  her  own  state  and  person  that  in 
a  play  treating  of  such  a  subject  an  apotheosis  of  the 
loyal  bishop  was  mere  prudence.  Sir  John  Hayward 
published  the  first  part  of  his  History  of  Henry  IV. 
in  1599,  and  got  into  great  trouble  with  the  queen, 
who  insisted  that  his  treatment  of  the  deposition  of 
Richard  II.  had  a  political  bearing  and  that  she  was 
meant  by  Richard  II.,  suspected  the  Earl  of  Essex,  her 
old  favourite,  of  inspiring  its  production,  had  Hay- 
ward  tried  before  the  Star  Chamber  and  imprisoned, 
and  wished  to  have  him  racked  until  he  confessed  the 
truth.  Francis  Godwin,  Bishop  of  LlandafF,  completed 
the  legend  of  Thomas  Merks  in  his  history  of  English 
bishops  {De  Praesulibus,  published  in  1601).  The  fate 
of  Merks  as  known  to  history  is  that,  after  the  Parlia- 
ment of  1399,  whether  on  account  of  his  speech  there 
or  for  subsequent  plotting,  he  was  committed  to  the 
custody  of  the  Abbot  of  St.  Albans,  who  was  ordered 
by  writ  of  28th  October  1399  to  deliver  him  into 
the  hands  of  the  bearer,  that  he  might  appear  before 
the  king  and  council.  He  was  degraded  from  his 
bishopric,  v/as  translated  by  the  Pope  to  a  see  in 
Greece,  and,  as  there  was  in  his  new  diocese  "  no 
clergy  or  Christian  people "  and  the  bishop  was  "  in 
notable  poverty,"  Henry  IV.  in  1401  gave  him  leave 
to  acquire  from  the  Pope  benefices,  other  than  bishop- 
rics, worth  100  marks  yearly,  and  later  on  gave  him  per- 
mission to  acquire  benefices  worth  300  marks  yearly. 
He  was  instituted  rector  of  Todenham  in  Gloucester- 
shire in  1404,  and  died  incumbent  of  this  country  living 
in  1 409.     Shakespeare  thus  gives  Henry  IV. 's  sentence, 


ROSE   CASTLE  263 


making  even  "  cankred  Bolingbroke  "  bear  witness  to 
the  bishop's  merits — 

"  Carlisle,  this  is  your  doom  : 
Choose  out  some  secret  place,  some  reverent  room 
More  than  thou  hast,  and  with  it  joy  thy  life. 
So,  as  thou  liv'st  in  peace,  die  free  from  strife; 
For,  though  mine  enemy  thou  hast  ever  been, 
High  sparks  of  honour  in  thee  have  I  seen." 

Godwin,  however,  invented  this  version :  "  Per- 
adventure,"  he  says,  "  in  some  kinde  of  favour  and 
admiration  of  his  faithful  constancy  (for  vertue  will 
be  honoured  even  of  her  enemies),  peradventure  also 
to  this  ende,  that  by  forcing  him  to  live  miserably 
they  might  lay  a  punishment  upon  him  more  grievous 
than  death,  which  they  well  saw  he  despised,  the 
Pope  (who  seldom  denied  the  king  any  request  that 
he  might  afford  good  cheape)  was  easily  entreated 
to  translate  forthwith  this  good  bishop  from  the  see 
of  Carlisle,  that  yielded  him  honourable  maintainance, 
unto  Samois  in  Greece,  whereof  he  knew  he  should 
never  receive  one  penny  profit.  He  was  so  happy 
as  neither  to  take  benefit  of  the  gift  of  his  enemy,  nor 
to  be  hurt  by  the  masked  malice  of  his  counterfeit 
friend  :  Disdaining  (as  it  v/ere)  to  take  his  life  by  his 
gift  that  took  away  from  his  master  both  life  and 
kingdom,  he  died  shortly  after  his  deliverance,  so  de- 
luding also  the  mockery  of  his  translation,  whereby 
things  so  falling  out,  he  was  nothing  damnified." 

A  hundred  years  later  the  supporters  of  the  cause 
of  the  Pretender  again  dragged  Bishop  Merks's  name 
from  oblivion.  Dr.  Higden,  who  wrote  a  treatise 
called  A  View  of  the  English  Constitution^  and  made  in 
it  an  allusion  to  the  conduct  of  Bishop  Merks,  called 
forth  an  anonymous  reply,  entitled  The  Hereditary 
Right  of  the  Crown  of  England  Asserted^  in  which  the 


264      EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF  YORK 

bishop's  conduct  is  alluded  to  as  '*  so  glorious  an 
example  of  Fidelity  and  Fortitude."  This  book,  in 
its  turn,  called  down  the  wrath  of  the  prolific  pam- 
phleteer, White  Kennett,  Bishop  of  Peterborough,  in 
the  form  of  letters  to  the  then  Bishop  of  Carlisle.  In 
these  letters,  for  the  first  time  in  its  existence,  doubt 
was  thrown  on  the  Merks  myth.  Kennett  showed, 
indeed,  that  the  evidence  for  Merks  even  being  present 
at  the  Parliament  in  which  he  is  said  to  have  made  his 
great  speech  is  not  of  the  most  satisfactory.  He 
carried  scepticism  too  far,  however,  for  a  contemporary 
and  accurate  chronicle,  the  Tra'ison  et  Mort  de  Richard 
11.^  narrated,  as  its  editor  points  out,  that  in  this 
Parliament  the  Bishop  of  Carlisle  alone,  among  the 
king's  supporters,  spoke  on  his  behalf;  and,  although 
he  cannot  have  made  any  speech  very  much  like  the 
speech  he  is  purported  to  have  made  on  that  occasion, 
it  is  possible  that  Bishop  Merks  has  a  rightful  claim 
to  this  one  good  deed,  of  all  his  good  and  bad  deeds, 
that  men  have  remembered. 

His  successor  at  Carlisle,  in  1400,  was  the  William 
Strickland  whom  the  Pope  had  rejected  in  1396,  but 
now  provided  without  waiting  for  the  royal  assent. 
Henry,  however,  would  not  acknowledge  him  until  he 
had  been  elected  by  the  Chapter.  The  new  bishop 
secured  an  enduring  monument  at  Rose  Castle  by 
rebuilding  the  old  pele  tower  and  giving  his  name 
to  it.  He  also  contributed  to  the  fabric  of  Carlisle 
Cathedral,  and  was  a  benefactor  to  the  town  of  Penrith, 
where  he  founded  a  chantry  and  provided  a  water- 
supply  by  building  a  watercourse.  He  died  in  141 9, 
and  was  succeeded  by  Roger  Whelpdale,  formerly 
Provost  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  and  author  of 
books  on  logic  and  mathematics. 

This  was  a  great  change  for  Carlisle,  whose  bishops 


ROSE   CASTLE  265 

had  hitherto  been  soldiers  and  statesmen,  but  had 
counted  no  learned  man.  He  was,  moreover,  suc- 
ceeded by  a  series  of  scholars.  William  Barrow, 
Bishop  of  Bangor,  was  translated  here  on  Whelpdale's 
death  in  1422.  He  was  commissioner  for  entering 
into  a  truce  with  the  Scots  at  Hawden  Stank.  He 
died  at  Rose  Castle  in  1429,  and  was  succeeded  by 
Marmaduke  Lumley,  one  of  the  Durham  Lumleys. 
Lumley  suffered  so  much  from  the  depredations  of 
the  Scots,  that  it  is  said  he  was  straitened  to  support 
his  episcopal  dignity.  He  was  translated  in  1449, 
however,  from  this  exposed  station  to  the  more 
peaceful  and  profitable  see  of  Lincoln. 

His  successor,  Nicholas  Close,  Chancellor  of  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  had  already  been  employed 
to  conclude  a  treaty  with  the  Scots,  and  was  subse- 
quently commissioned  to  see  that  it  was  observed  by 
the  wardens  of  the  marches.  In  a  political  poem 
of  1450,  which  gives  the  names  of  friends  of  the 
Government  who  were  most  hated  by  the  people, 
he  is  mentioned — 

"  The  bisshop  of  Carlyle  shal  synge  Credo  ful  sore ; 
To  suyche  fals  traitours  come  foule  endynge." 

Close  was  not  kept  long  in  durance  vile  at  Rose.  He 
was  translated  to  the  see  of  Coventry  and  Lichfield  in 
1 45 1,  and  was  succeeded  by  William  Percy,  a  son  of 
the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  at  Carlisle.  Percy,  also, 
was  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Cambridge.  He 
died  in  1462,  and  was  succeeded  first  by  John  Kings- 
cott,  who  was  bishop  for  one  year,  and  then  by  Richard 
Scrope,  who  died  in  1468. 

Edward  Story,  chaplain  and  confessor  to  Elizabeth 
wife  of  Edward  IV.,  and  again  Chancellor  of  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  followed.      He  was    trans- 


266      EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

lated  to  Chichester  in  1477.  Richard  Bell,  Prior  of 
Durham,  was  the  next  bishop,  and  built  the  tower  at 
Rose  called  by  his  name.  His  successor,  in  1496, 
was  William  Senhouse,  or  Sever,  Abbot  of  St.  Mary's, 
York,  who  in  1502  was  translated  to  the  see  of 
Durham,  and  died  in  1505.  It  was  now  that  England 
under  Henry  VII.  began  to  offer  Scotland  the  hymeneal 
offices  of  the  priest  as  an  alternative  to  the  sword,  and 
Bishop  Senhouse  was  in  the  commission  to  treat  of  the 
marriage  of  Margaret  Tudor  to  James  IV.  of  Scotland, 
that  in  1603  was  to  bring  about  the  union  of  the 
crowns  of  England  and  Scotland. 

Roger  Leyburn,  Master  of  Pembroke  Hall,  Cam- 
bridge, and  for  some  time  Archdeacon  and  Chancellor 
of  Durham,  was  the  next  bishop.  He  died  in  1507, 
and  John  Penny,  Abbot  of  Leicester  and  Bishop  of 
Bangor,  was  translated  to  Carlisle.  During  his  episco- 
pate English  and  Scots  met  each  other  in  hostile  array 
by  land  and  sea,  and  the  Borders  continued  to  flourish 
on  desolation.  Invading  England  in  aid  of  France 
after  the  formation  of  the  Holy  League,  James  IV. 
was  defeated  and  slain  at  Flodden  with  the  flower  of 
his  nobility ;  but  Henry  VIII. 's  ambitions  lay  on  the 
Continent,  and  he  never  thought  of  following  up  this 
victory ;  and  war  once  more  degenerated  into  raids 
often  secretly  encouraged,  and  sometimes  officially  led, 
by  the  wardens  of  the  marches.  There  is  no  further 
record  of  the  burning  of  Rose  Castle,  however,  as  the 
Tudor  wardens  of  the  marches  were  at  least  strong 
enough  to  protect  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Car- 
lisle. The  wars  that  subsequently  touched  Carlisle  and 
Rose  Castle  were  due  to  the  loyalty  of  the  district  to  the 
Stuarts,  and  to  the  cropping  up  in  a  different  way  of  the 
old  connection  of  the  bishops  with  dispossessed  Royalties. 

John  Penny  died  in  1520,  and  John  Kyte,  Arch- 


ROSE   CASTLE  267 

bishop  of  Armagh,  received  in  1521,  through  Wolsey's 
influence,    the    titular    archbishopric    of    Thebes    and 
the   bishopric   of  Carlisle.      Bishop   Kyte  is   a  minor 
example  of  fidelity  to  lost  causes.     A  personal  friend 
of   Wolsey's,    the     cardinal    in    his    prosperous    days 
"  conversed  freely  "  with  Kyte,  who  followed  the  path 
Wolsey  was  forced  to  pursue  in  the  matter  of  Henry 
VIII. 's  divorce.     Afterwards,  when   the   cardinal  was 
living  in  poverty  at  Esher,  Kyte  sent  him  "  dishes  to 
eat  his   meat  in  and  plate  to  drink  in,  and  also  his 
clothes  to  occupy."      Kyte  had   been   ambassador  to 
Spain  in  15 19,  and  was  in  1522  appointed  councillor 
and   treasurer  to   the   warden   of  the   marches.  Lord 
Dacre,  who  was  organising  inroads  into  the  northern 
kingdom.     He  writes  in  this  year  to  his  patron,  in  the 
note    of  low    cunning    beloved   of  Tudor    statesmen 
(when  they  were  not,  on  the  other  hand,  giving  utter- 
ance   to    sentiments    of    superhuman    loftiness),    that 
Philip  Dacre,  Sir  William  Percy,  Lord  Ocle,  and  four 
knights,  with  men  from  Berwick  and  elsewhere  to  the 
number  of  2000,  slew  Lanse  Kerr,  one  of  the  worst 
Borderers  in  Scotland,  and  forty  persons  with  him,  and 
brought  his  son  and  heir  and  a  great  prey  in  safety  to 
England,  losing  but  one  man.     Would  Wolsey  send 
them  letters  and  thanks .?  and  when  "  slack  "  they  must 
have   money.      If  Wolsey   would   send   no   letters  of 
thanks  the  bishop  must  give  them  money.     In  June 
he  wrote  to  complain  that  English  thieves  did  more 
damage  than  the  Scots,  and  to  ask  for  1000  bowmen 
to  be  sent  to  the  Borders  near  Carlisle.     "  There  is  no 
man  which  is  not  in  a  stronghold,"  he  wrote,  "that 
hath   or   may   have   any  cattle   or  movable   in   surety 
through   the    bishopric  " — Durham — "  and    from    the 
bishopric  till  we  come  within  eight  miles  of  Carlisle, 
all  Northumberland,  likewise  Exhamshire  " — Hexham- 


268      EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

shire — "  which  longeth  to  your  grace  worst  of  all ;  for 
in  Exham  self  every  market  day  there  is  fourscore  or 
lOO  strong  thieves,  and  poor  men  and  gentlemen  seeth 
them  which  do  rob  them  and  their  goods,  and  dare 
neither  complain  of  them  by  name,  nor  say  one  word 
of  them.  They  take  all  their  cattle  and  horse,  their 
corn  as  they  carry  hit  to  sow  or  to  the  mill  to  gryne, 
and  at  their  houses  bid  them  deliver  what  they  will  or 
they  shall  be  fired  and  burnt." 

Kyte  had  no  sympathy  with  the  Reformation,  but 
the  thin  thread  of  the  episcopal  history  of  Carlisle 
runs  in  and  out  of  the  series  of  great  events  that 
changed  mediaeval  into  modern  England.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  reasons  that  led  Henry  VIII.  to 
wish  for  a  divorce  from  Katharine  of  Aragon,  the 
incident  served  to  show  the  king  what  an  obstacle 
the  Papacy  might  be  in  the  way  of  his  imperious  will. 
He  never  had  any  desire  for  doctrinal  change. 
Edward  VI.  was  a  true  Protestant,  as  Mary  Tudor 
was  a  true  Catholic ;  but  neither  Henry  VIII.  nor  his 
younger  daughter  were  touched  by  Puritanism,  with 
its  terror  of  idolatry.  They  liked  to  see  in  their  own 
chapels  the  crucifix,  the  candles  burning  at  the  feet  of 
the  saints,  and  the  high  altar  before  which  the  Host 
was  elevated.  There  was  one  thing,  however,  that 
they  liked  better,  and  that  was  power.  The  Crown 
must  be  the  supreme  source  of  jurisdiction,  and  as  this 
was  incompatible  with  the  limits  claimed  by  the  papal 
jurisdiction,  England  had  to  be  rid  of  the  Papacy. 

It  was  only  the  fact  that  the  Reformation  was  in 
the  air  that  enabled  Henry  VIII.  and  Elizabeth  to  cut 
England  adrift  from  Rome,  but  they  themselves  had 
no  wish  for  help  from  the  Reformation,  and  afterwards 
only  adopted  reformed  usages  in  a  limited  way,  when 
compelled  by  their  political  necessities.     They  sought 


ROSE   CASTLE  269 


only  to  bring  the  Church  directly  under  their  rule,  to 
make  it  an  instrument  of  government  instead  of  a 
State — and  often  a  hostile  State — within  the  State  ;  but 
the  religious  history  of  the  sixteenth  century  is  that  of 
the  gradual  creeping  in  of  Puritanism.  Henry  VIII. 
began  by  attacking  Wolsey  for  the  abuse  of  his 
legatine  powers,  and  then  demanded  that  both  Houses 
of  Convocation  should  recognise  himself  as  the  "  Pro- 
tector and  Supreme  Head  of  the  Church  and  clergy 
of  England."  Parliament  decided  that  "  the  king's 
Majesty  hath  as  well  the  care  of  the  souls  of  his 
subjects  as  their  bodies,  and  may  by  the  law  of  God 
by  his  Parliament  make  laws  touching  and  concerning 
as  well  the  one  and  the  other  " — a  decision  that  severed 
the  national  Church  from  the  universal  Church.  The 
king  altered  his  coronation  oath  so  as  to  swear  not 
generally  to  uphold  the  rights  of  the  Church,  but  to 
uphold  the  rights  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  laid 
the  question  of  his  divorce  before  the  two  Houses  of  Con- 
vocation. Cranmer  declared  his  marriage  with  Katharine 
of  Aragon  to  have  been  void  from  the  beginning,  the 
Pope's  dispensation  invalid;  and  early  in  1533  the 
king  married  Anne  Boleyn.  The  universities  declared 
that  the  Pope  had  no  authority  in  England  by  divine 
right,  the  papal  revenues  in  England  were  transferred 
by  Act  of  Parliament  to  the  Crown,  Peter's  Pence 
abolished,  and  the  bishops  forbidden  to  receive  their 
pallium  from  Rome.  The  king  added  to  his  titles 
"  Supreme  Head  on  earth  of  the  Church  of  England," 
and  he  was  given  by  Parliament  the  right  of  visitation 
over  the  Church.  All  these  measures  were  merely 
constitutional,  but,  with  the  Pope  and  emperor  set 
against  him,  Henry  VIII.  was  compelled  to  turn  for 
allies  to  the  natural  enemies  of  the  emperor,  the  petty 
princes   of  Germany,  among  whom  Puritan  practices 


270       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

were  full-blown.  English  ambassadors  attended  the 
meeting  of  the  Schmalkaldic  League  in  1535,  in  which 
it  was  agreed  not  to  recognise  the  great  council 
announced  by  the  Pope ;  and  the  new  allies  wished 
England  to  follow  them  in  a  reformation  of  doctrine 
of  which  the  Scripture  was  to  be  the  only  standard. 
Henry  VIII.,  under  German  influence,  now  gave 
licence  for  the  free  circulation  of  the  Bible,  and  or- 
dained that  a  copy  should  be  placed  in  every  church. 
Bishoprics  were  given  to  men  who,  like  the  existing 
Archbishop  Cranmer,  had  the  new  theological  views, 
and  in  the  Convocation  of  1536  the  worship  of 
images,  the  use  of  indulgences,  and  the  doctrines  of 
transubstantiation  and  purgatory,  were  declared  to  be 
contrary  to  Scripture,  which  was  all  that  a  man  needed 
for  salvation. 

Finally  the  king  laid  ten  articles  before  the  Con- 
vocation, by  which  the  Bible  and  the  three  oldest  Creeds 
were  stated  to  be  the  only  sources,  and  three  Sacra- 
ments only,  baptism,  penance,  and  the  Lord's  Supper, 
were  recognised,  though  the  Real  Presence  in  the  bread 
and  wine  of  the  Sacrament  and  the  invocation  of  saints 
were  not  yet  made  heresies.  These  articles  were  to  be 
explained  to  the  laity,  and  children  were  to  be  taught 
in  English  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Creed,  and  the  Ten 
Commandments.  The  whole  aim  was  to  admit  the 
light  of  common  day  into  the  Church.  The  king  now, 
however,  proceeded  to  put  into  use  the  power  of 
visitation  given  him  by  his  Parliament.  The  religious 
houses  in  the  country,  especially  in  the  north,  still 
preserved  their  loyalty  to  Rome,  and  moreover  their 
riches  made  them  well  worth  plundering ;  but  the 
charge  on  which  they  were  suppressed  was  that  they 
sheltered  immoral  or  irreligious  living.  They  were 
called  upon  to  surrender,  and  their  possessions   were 


ROSE    CASTLE  271 

confiscated.  This  action  at  last  brought  home  to  the 
common  people  that  a  great  religious  revolution  was 
proceeding  in  their  midst.  The  north  of  England  at 
once  rose,  and  under  the  banners  of  St.  Cuthbert  and 
the  Five  Wounds  marched  south,  with  Robert  Aske  as 
their  leader,  in  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  "  to  go  to 
London  on  pilgrimage  to  the  king's  Highness,  and 
there  to  have  all  the  vile  blood  of  his  Council  put  from 
him  and  all  the  noble  blood  set  there  again  ;  and  also 
the  faith  of  Christ  and  His  laws  to  be  kept,  and  full 
restitution  to  the  Church  of  all  wrongs  done  unto  it." 
They  were  readily  dispersed  by  promises ;  but  they 
very  shortly  gave  the  king  a  pretext  for  severely 
punishing  them.  The  Bishops  of  Carlisle  were  very 
small  cogs  in  these  great  wheels.  All  the  religious  in 
the  diocese  of  Carlisle  except  those  of  Holme  Cultram 
and  St.  Mary's,  Carlisle,  were  turned  adrift,  and  the 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace  found  many  partisans  in  Cum- 
berland, the  inhabitants  in  their  inconsequent  way 
regarding  their  own  shrines  with  great  reverence, 
although  they  were  always  quite  willing  to  destroy 
those  of  their  neighbours.  Sir  Thomas  Wharton 
wrote  to  Cromwell  that  one  riot  was  found  to  have 
been  at  the  command  of  the  Bishop  of  Carlisle ;  and 
the  temperate  suggestion  was  made  that  it  would  be 
well  to  send  some  of  "  the  most  virtuous  and  learned 
men  of  the  kingdom  to  preach  and  teach  in  all  parts 
there,  and  to  appoint  the  Bishops  of  York,  Durham, 
and  Carlisle  to  be  present  at  their  sermons." 

The  punishments  meted  out  to  the  lay  rebels  were 
far  more  severe,  and  more  in  keeping  with  the  Tudor 
nature.  Martial  law  was  proclaimed  in  Cumberland, 
Westmorland,  Durham,  and  North-west  Yorkshire  ; 
and  Henry  VIII.  wrote  to  say  that  Clifford  and  Dacre 
were  to    cause  "such  dredfuU  execution  to  be  doon 


272      EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 


upon  a  good  nombre  of  th'  inhabitants  of  every  toune, 
village,  and  hamlet,  that  have  offended  in  this  rebellion, 
as  well  by  the  hanging  them  up  in  trees,  as  by  the 
quartering  of  them  and  the  setting  of  their  heddes  and 
quarters  in  every  toune,  greate  and  small,  and  in  all 
suche  other  places,  as  they  may  be  a  fearfuU  spectacle 
to  all  other  hereafter,  that  would  practice  any  like 
mater." 

Soon  the  great  religious  houses  met  the  fate  of 
the  smaller  ones.  Bishop  Kyte  died  in  1537.  He 
was  as  well  cut  out  for  the  pursuits  of  peace  as  of 
war.  A  letter  from  Sir  William  Kingston  at  Black- 
friars  in  1536  to  Lord  Lisle  throws  light  on  the 
bishop's  simple  life.  The  letter  encloses  a  purse  of 
wood  for  Lady  Lisle  "  so  that  it  may  endure  to  keep 
money,  for  almost  I  can  wear  none  purse  for  lack  of 
money,  and  I  have  done  with  play,  but  with  my  lord 
of  Carlisle,  penny  gleek,  this  is  our  pastime."  Kyte, 
like  his  patron  Wolsey,  was  a  great  builder,  and  to 
him  is  due  the  very  beautiful  Tudor  tower  on  the 
west  of  the  old  quadrangle  at  Rose.  On  the  tower  is 
his  monogram,  and  his  arms  impaled  with  those  of  his 
archbishopric  of  Armagh.  He  is  said  to  have  built 
the  whole  western  side  of  the  quadrangle,  and  pro- 
bably, says  Ferguson,  divided  the  great  hall,  cutting 
off  a  private  dining-room  from  one  end,  constructed 
private  apartments  for  himself  in  his  new  wing,  and 
built  the  long  gallery  that  was  then  coming  into  fashion 
and  was  such  a  feature  in  Tudor  and  Jacobean  houses. 
These  galleries,  it  is  thought,  were  used  for  display 
of  collections  of  armour  or  art  treasures,  or  for  indoor 
exercise.  Rose  Castle  became,  indeed,  such  an  eligible 
residence  that  one  warden  of  the  marches  chose  to 
turn  out  Bishop  Meye  and  lie  here  instead  of  at 
Carlisle. 


ROSE   CASTLE  273 

Under  Kyte's  successor,  Robert  Aldridge,  the  "Old 
Learning  "  came  into  fashion  again.  The  Pilgrimage 
of  Grace  seems  to  have  given  the  king  pause.  He 
enforced  the  changes  that  he  had  already  made,  but 
forbade  the  marriage  of  priests,  subjected  theological 
publications  to  a  severe  censorship,  and  looked  with  a 
favourable  eye  on  the  old  religious  ceremonies.  In 
1539  the  retrograde  Bill  of  the  Six  Articles  was  passed, 
approving  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence,  private 
masses,  auricular  confession  and  vows,  and  forbidding 
the  marriage  of  priests  and  the  giving  of  the  cup  to 
the  laity.  After  the  king's  disappointment  with  Anne 
of  Cleves,  Protestant  doctrines  fell  into  complete  dis- 
favour, and  their  upholders  were  sent  to  the  block. 
Aldridge  was  one  of  the  bishops  who  supported  in 
Parliament  the  Statute  of  the  Six  Articles.  Whereas 
the  king  confounded  many  of  the  bishops,  including 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  with  his  learning,  York, 
Durham,  and  Carlisle  were,  for  the  first  time  since  the 
changes,  able  to  show  themselves  "  honest  and  well- 
iearned  men."  Bishop  Aldridge,  a  scholar  of  the  new 
type,  was  a  great  friend  of  Erasmus's,  by  whom  he  was 
described  when  a  young  man  as  "  a  youth  of  smooth 
eloquence,"  and  with  whom  he  carried  on  a  learned 
correspondence  in  the  universal  tongue  that  saved  the 
mediaeval  scholar  so  much  labour  at  languages,  Latin. 
All  the  Tudors  delighted  in  the  use  of  this  scholarly 
speech,  and  in  1527  Aldridge  had  been  employed  by 
his  university  to  compose  three  letters  in  Latin  to 
Henry  VIIL  He  collated  manuscripts  for  his  friend 
Erasmus,  whose  guide  he  was  when  the  latter  was  in 
England.  Leland  the  antiquary,  who  was  his  con- 
temporary, and  may  have  visited  his  castle  of  Rose, 
though  he  mentions  it  very  cursorily  in  his  Itinerary 
("  Bishop    Kight    built    hit    very    fresh "   is    the   sole 

s 


274       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

remark  that  he  makes),  sang  the  praises  of  Aldridge's 
"  arts  and  eloquence  "  in  Latin  verse  in  his  Encomia 
Virorum  Illustrorum.  He  was  appointed  schoolmaster 
at  Eton  in  1515,  and  in  1540,  although  as  bishop  he 
had  charge  of  the  treasure  for  the  fortifications  at 
Carlisle,  he  chose  to  appear  at  the  king's  Privy  Council 
held  at  Windsor,  "  rather  to  linger  at  Eton  than  for  any 
just  cause,"  and  exposed  himself  to  the  callous  command 
to  return  to  his  diocese  "  for  the  feeding  of  the  people 
both  with  his  preaching  and  good  hospitality."  A 
scholar,  possessed  by  the  burning  "  fever  of  the  spirit" 
of  the  humanists  of  that  time,  Aldridge  must  have 
suffered  a  living  death  among  the  dull  wits  of  his 
Cumbrian  flock,  who,  as  some  one  said,  equalling  the 
Caribs  in  the  art  of  stealing,  resembled  the  Hottentots 
in  ignorance  and  brutality.  Aldridge's  attitude  to  the 
Reformation  reminds  us  of  the  contemporary  English 
scholar.  Sir  Thomas  More  ;  but,  unlike  More,  he  was 
no  candidate  for  martyrdom,  and  managed  to  live  un- 
molested through  the  many  religious  choppings  and 
changes  almost  until  the  accession  of  Elizabeth. 

Henry  VIII.,  however,  had  destroyed  for  ever  the 
religious  unity  of  his  kingdom.  Protestant  ideas, 
which  had  feebly  raised  their  heads  at  the  printing  of 
Tyndale's  Bible,  had  been  crushed,  but  thus  deliber- 
ately reintroduced,  germinated,  and  began  to  show 
signs  that  they  would  be  the  great  question  of  the 
age  and  of  many  succeeding  ages  in  England  as  on 
the  Continent.  Questions  that  were  only  matters  of 
statecraft  to  the  powers  that  be  became  questions  of 
their  soul's  salvation  to  the  earnest-minded  subjects  of 
the  Tudors.  On  the  death  of  the  king,  the  supreme 
power  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  reformer,  Edward's  VI. 's 
uncle,  Protector  Somerset.  Cranmer  had  for  the  first 
time   a    free    hand.     Bishops   were    forced    to   preach 


ROSE   CASTLE  275 

against  the  Pope,  feast-days,  and  pilgrimages,  and  to 
inculcate  faith  not  works ;  and  an  ardent  attack  was 
made  on  image-worship.  The  Six  Articles  were  re- 
pealed, and  the  Common  Prayer-book  was  drawn  up 
as  the  definitive  expression  of  Anglican  feeling.  As 
the  time  was  not  yet  ripe  for  Puritanism,  however, 
there  were  revolts  and  demands  for  the  restoration 
of  the  Mass,  the  Sacraments,  the  images  of  the  saints, 
and  the  religious  houses ;  but  they  were  easily  put 
down  by  the  strong  Protector.  Even  on  Somerset's 
fall  the  enthusiastic  Puritanism  of  the  king  kept  the 
movement  in  progress,  and  persecuted  foreign  Protes- 
tants fled  to  England,  where  they  were  welcomed  and 
allowed  to  disseminate  their  doctrines.  Calvinistic  teach- 
ing was  encouraged  ;  the  doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence 
in  the  Sacrament  fell  into  disfavour ;  high  altars  were 
removed  from  churches,  and  plain  wooden  communion 
tables,  put  in  their  places,  reminded  the  participant  that 
the  Lord's  Supper  was  onlya  commemorative  observance. 
Already  the  great  question  of  Church  government, 
that  was  to  be  of  such  importance  in  the  succeeding 
century,  the  dispute  between  Episcopalians  and  Presby- 
terians, was  heralded.  Mary  Tudor  on  her  accession 
immediately  stopped  all  secularisation  of  the  Church, 
unedited  preaching,  and  interpretation  of  the  Bible. 
Catholic  bishops  were  restored,  Protestants  imprisoned, 
the  Mass  and  images  restored  to  the  churches,  and  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  abolished.  After  the  sup- 
pression of  Wyatt's  rebellion  the  queen  led  her  people 
back  into  the  fold  of  the  Pope,  and  revived  the  laws 
against  those  that  strayed.  Then  followed  the  martyr- 
doms that  the  pilgrims  of  1537  had  demanded,  and 
that  would  no  doubt  have  been  popular  enough  at 
that  time,  but,  less  than  twenty  years  later,  raised 
a    storm    of   popular   horror,   so    much    ground    had 


276       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

the  Reformation  gained,  Elizabeth,  on  her  accession, 
found  that  she  had  at  once  to  make  some  concessions 
to  Puritan  feeling,  and  so  forbade  the  elevation  of  the 
Host  in  the  Mass.  Again  the  Crown  was  made  "  in 
all  causes,  as  well  ecclesiastical  as  civil,  supreme." 
Protestants  who  had  fled  abroad  during  the  evil  days 
of  Queen  Mary  returned,  built  up  in  the  faith  by  their 
communion  with  their  fellow-believers  over  the  seas, 
and  ready  to  labour  at  the  work  of  reformation  at 
home.  Throughout  her  reign  Elizabeth  found  it 
necessary  to  placate  the  Puritan  party.  The  Prayer- 
book  of  Edward  VI.,  with  some  modifications,  that 
made  it  less  offensive  to  Catholics  and  maintained 
the  Real  Presence,  was  enforced  by  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity ;  and  the  queen  ordered  the  removal  of  images, 
and  allowed,  although  she  held  it  in  disfavour,  the 
marriage  of  priests.  In  most  points  of  ritual,  how- 
ever, she  clung  to  the  old  ways.  The  thing  that  she 
really  cared  about  was  to  secure  the  royal  supremacy  over 
the  Church,  and  none  might  hold  a  public  office,  ecclesi- 
astical or  lay,  who  would  not  recognise  this.  Thirteen 
bishops  and  many  of  the  clergy  resigned  because  they 
could  not  bring  themselves  to  do  so. 

Bishop  Aldridge  of  Carlisle  died  in  1556,  and  was 
succeeded  by  Bishop  Oglethorpe,  who  crowned  Queen 
Elizabeth  when,  the  see  of  Canterbury  being  vacant, 
the  Archbishop  of  York,  and  possibly  the  Bishop  of 
Durham,  refused  to  do  so.  This  service  Elizabeth 
always  remembered  with  gratitude,  and  afterwards 
said,  when  receiving  Bishop  Robinson's  homage  for 
the  bishopric  of  Carlisle,  "  that  she  must  ever  have 
a  care  to  furnish  that  see  with  a  worthy  man,  for 
his  sake  who  first  set  the  crown  on  her  head." 
Bishop  Oglethorpe,  however,  was  a  Catholic  in  his 
heart,  refused   the   following   year  to  take   the   Oath 


ROSE   CASTLE  277 


of  Supremacy,  and  was  deprived.  From  this  time 
reforming  bishops  sat  in  the  northern  see,  and  Carlisle 
Cathedral  soon  showed  advanced  Puritan  usages,  to 
the  great  distaste  of  the  diocese.  The  bishopric  was 
offered,  on  Bishop  Oglethorpe's  deprivation,  to  Ber- 
nard Gilpin,  rector  of  Houghton-le-Spring  in  Durham, 
and  a  well-known  member  of  the  reforming  party  ;  but 
he  declined  it,  as  he  was  wisely  unwilling  to  put  his 
own  house  in  order.  He  had  there,  he  said,  many 
friends  and  relations  "  at  whom  I  must  connive  in 
many  thinges,  not  without  hurte  to  myselfe,  or  else 
deny  them  manie  thinges,  not  without  offence  to 
them."  In  the  end  another  Protestant,  the  York- 
shireman  John  Best,  was  elected,  and  tried  to  force 
Puritanism  down  the  throat  of  an  obstinately  Catholic 
people.  At  his  general  visitation  in  1 561,  it  is  said, 
many  of  his  clergy  refused  to  appear  and  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  him,  and,  protected  by  Lord  Dacre 
and  the  Earl  of  Cumberland,  continued  to  elevate 
the  Host  in  their  parish  churches.  The  bishop  com- 
plained that  "  God's  glorious  gospel "  could  not  take 
effect  in  the  counties  under  the  rule  of  Lord  Dacre 
and  the  Earls  of  Cumberland  and  Westmorland. 
He  wrote  to  Grindal,  the  Bishop  of  London,  that 
there  was  a  great  dearth  of  preachers  in  his  diocese, 
and  that  he  had  no  help  from  his  cathedral  church, 
where  the  prebendaries  were  all  *'  ignorant  Priests,  or 
old  unlearned  Monks,  put  in  at  the  dissolution  of  the 
monasteries "  ;  and  one  of  them  had  fled  abroad,  as 
many  of  the  papists  now  did.  Since  Best  had  been 
bishop,  Grindal  wrote  to  the  queen's  secretary  he 
"  had  met  with  very  ill  dealings  in  that  country, 
replenished  with  Papists  and  such  like  :  which  perhaps 
was  the  cause  that  Bernard  Gilpin  prudently  declined 
the  bishopric   .   .   .  And  there  were  two  especially  of 


278       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

whom  he  complained.  Grindal  thought,"  writes 
Strype,  "  that  if  these  were  touched  by  the  authority 
of  the  Lords,  it  would  be  a  terror  to  the  rest ;  for, 
as  he  said,  '  there  were  marvellous  practices  to  deface 
that  bishop  in  his  lawless  country,  and  by  him,  the 
cause  ; '  meaning,  that  by  defacing  him,  they  intended 
to  deface  the  cause  of  the  reformed  religion  itself." 
In  the  end  Bishop  Grindal,  himself  a  Cumbrian,  of 
Coupland,  "  obtained  a  commission  for  the  Church 
of  Carlisle ;  wherein  he  was  appointed  the  chief,  if 
not  only  commissioner :  but  he  sent  to  Smith  {i.e. 
Sir  Thomas  Smith  the  Dean,  I  suppose)  to  solicit 
the  secretary  that  he  might  have  two  or  three  more 
joined  in  commission  with  him.  And  this  commission 
I  make  no  doubt,"  continues  Strype,  "  our  bishop 
managed  with  the  most  earnest  application,  to  do 
service  to  his  superstitious  country  and  to  give  a 
countenance  and  authority  to  the  godly  bishop  there 
in  the  promoting  of  good  religion." 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  took  refuge  in  England  in 
1568.  Flying  without  a  single  woman  attendant,  she 
crossed  the  Solway  in  an  open  boat  and  came  to  Car- 
lisle, where,  by  Elizabeth's  order,  she  was  detained. 
Looked  upon  as  the  champion  of  Catholicism  and  by 
English  Catholics  as  the  rightful  owner  of  the  crown, 
Mary's  vicinity  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  the  Rising 
of  the  North  in  1569  in  favour  of  the  old  faith.  The 
people  burned  the  Common  Prayer-book  and  the 
English  translation  of  the  Bible,  and  re-established 
the  Mass.  The  hated  Bishop  Best,  left  in  charge  of 
Carlisle  Castle,  only  escaped  death  at  the  hands  of  the 
rebels  by  the  timely  return  of  Lord  Scrope.  The 
Reformation  made  great  strides  after  the  suppression 
of  this  rising.  Best  had  at  one  time  Queen  Elizabeth's 
licence  to  arm  himself  and  his  dependents  against  the 


ROSE   CASTLE  279 


inhabitants  of  his  diocese ;  but  Richard  Barnes,  his 
successor  (^ S7'^~77)  ^^^  better  able  to  maintain  his 
authority.  Barnes  had  been  one  of  Grindal's  chaplains, 
and  his  reforming  policy  is  identical  with  that  of 
Grindal.  Grindal  had  even  had  scruples  about  accept- 
ing the  bishopric  of  London  because  of  the  Popish 
pomp  and  circumstance  that  would  thereby  be  entailed 
on  him,  and  had  particularly  objected  to  his  prelatical 
garments.  He  had  decided,  however,  to  wear  the 
garments,  but  always  to  preach  against  them.  Em- 
ployed by  the  queen  in  the  visitation  of  the  north  to 
enforce  the  Oath  of  Supremacy,  he  had  taken  care 
to  have  *'all  the  utensils  and  instruments  of  supersti- 
tion and  idolatry  demolished  and  destroyed  out  of 
the  churches  where  God's  pure  service  was  to  be  set 
up  ;  such  as  the  roods,  that  is  the  images  of  Christ 
upon  the  cross,  with  Mary  and  John  standing  by ; 
also  images  of  the  saints,  tutelaries  of  the  churches,  to 
whom  they  were  dedicated,  Popish  books,  altars,  and 
the  like,"  Under  his  former  chaplain  all  the  plate 
and  vestments  of  the  churches  in  the  diocese  of  Carlisle 
were  done  away  with  or  dispersed,  and  cups  replaced 
popish  "  chalices  "  for  the  Communion.  The  next 
bishop,  John  Meye,  was  one  of  the  commissioners  in 
Cumberland  of  the  Court  of  High  Commission,  to 
which  Elizabeth  had  delegated  her  supremacy  over 
the  Church.  Before  him  were  brought  even  such 
offences  as  ringing  a  bell  in  time  of  flood  to  provoke 
people  to  prayer.  Under  Henry  Robinson,  bishop 
from  1598  to  1616,  mentioned  once  or  twice  above,  a 
man  was  put  to  death  at  Carlisle  for  exercising  his 
functions  as  a  Roman  Catholic  priest.  Henry  Robinson 
died  of  the  plague  at  Rose  Castle  in  1616,  Robert 
Snowden,  bishop  from  1616  to  1621,  was,  it  is  thought, 
the  first  married  Bishop  of  Carlisle. 


2  8o       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

With  the  accession  of  James  L  a  change  began  in 
the  relations  of  the  spiritual  and  temporal  power. 
Through  Scottish  influence  and  the  growth  of  Puritan 
feeling  the  Tudor  Church  settlement  was  threatened, 
and  the  Presbyterian  party  that  gained  ground  believed 
as  firmly  as  the  Catholics  did  that  the  Church  should 
be  independent  of  and  even  superior  to  the  State,  that 
God  alone  was  Head  of  the  Church,  and  that  in  any 
other  hierarchy  differences  could  only  be  in  degree, 
not  in  kind.  James  L,  although  a  firm  Protestant, 
had  been  so  disrespectfully  treated  by  the  Presbyterian 
party  in  Scotland,  who  called  him  "  God's  silly  vassal," 
that  he  hated  it,  and  had  come  to  the  conclusion  "  no 
bishop,  no  king."  It  was  inevitable  that  the  English 
Presbyterians  should  be  disappointed  when,  at  the 
Hampden  Court  Conference  in  1603,  the  king  thanked 
God  "for  bringing  him  into  the  promised  land  where 
religion  was  purely  professed,  where  he  sat  among 
grave,  learned,  and  reverend  men,  not  as  before,  else- 
where, a  king  without  state,  without  honour,  without 
order,  where  beardless  boys  would  brave  him  to  his 
face,"  and  refused  even  to  discuss  a  change  in  Church 
government.  James's  clemency  to  Catholics  nearly 
caused  Puritan  discontent  to  blaze  forth.  When,  under 
Charles  I.,  Puritanism  had  grown  stronger  still,  and  the 
king  was  even  more  firmly  convinced  that  it  was  to  his 
interest  to  keep  it  down,  the  great  Civil  War  came. 
James  I.,  strengthened  by  his  English  position,  had 
already  reintroduced  episcopacy  into  Scotland,  but 
the  legislative  power  of  the  Scottish  Church  remained 
in  the  General  Assembly  of  the  clergy.  Under 
Charles  I.,  Laud  became  the  king's  adviser,  Scottish 
sees  began  to  be  filled  with  men  of  English  episco- 
palian ideas,  and  the  king  made  an  attempt  to  enforce 
the  English  liturgy.     The  beginning  of  the  end  came 


ROSE   CASTLE  281 

from  Scotland,  when  Charles  I.  and  Laud  issued  for 
the  Scots  the  English  Prayer-book,  modified  so  as  to 
accentuate  the  points  that  the  Scots  objected  to  in 
it.  Its  enforcement  was  the  signal  for  riots,  and  an 
anti-episcopalian  army  gathered  at  Berwick,  won  the 
"First  Bishops'  War"  in  1639,  and  then  dictated 
their  own  terms.  In  the  "  Second  Bishops'  War " 
of  1640  the  Puritans  in  the  English  army  refused 
to  fight  their  co-religionists,  and  the  victory  of  the 
Scots  decided  the  final  victory  of  Presbyterianism  in 
Scotland.  Strengthened  by  Scottish  support,  the 
English  opposition  now  compelled  Charles  I.  to  im- 
peach Laud,  and  to  consent  to  the  execution  of  the 
other  minister  of  his  despotism,  Strafford.  The 
bishops  of  Carlisle  until  this  time  had  kept  pace 
with  the  country.  Richard  Milburne  was  only  bishop 
for  three  years  (1621-24).  His  successor,  Richard 
Senhouse,  chaplain  to  Charles  I.  when  Prince  of 
Wales,  and  to  James  I.,  and  preacher  of  Charles  I.'s 
coronation  sermon,  was  killed  by  a  fall  from  his  horse 
(like  Sylvester  de  Everdon)  in  1626.  Francis  White, 
who  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Carlisle  in  1626,  made 
himself  famous  for  his  writings  against  Papists.  The 
great  day  of  the  polemical  pamphleteer  was  beginning, 
and  White,  employed  by  James  I.  to  dispute  in  his 
place  against  the  Jesuit  Fisher,  wrote  such  pamphlets 
as  The  Romish  Fisher  caught  in  his  owne  Net.  He  and 
his  elder  brother.  Dr.  John  White,  were  in  their  turn  at- 
tacked by  treatises  bearing  such  felicitous  titles  as  White 
dyed  Black,  titles  so  characteristic  of  the  literary  style 
of  the  seventeenth-century  polemical  writer.  Barnaby 
Potter,  who  was  in  1628-29  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Carlisle,  is  connected  with  the  relieving  interest  in  this 
serious  century.  He  was  on  terms  of  intimacy  with 
the  Caroline  poet  Herrick,  and  the  praises  of  his  two 


282 


EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 


beautiful  daughters,  Amy  and  Grace,  were  sung  in  the 
Hesperides,  the  face  of  "  Handsome  Mrs.  Grace  Potter" 
receiving  this  quaint  commendation  : — 

"  In  all  that  admirable  round, 
There  is  not  one  least  solecism  found." 

Although  Potter  also  had  been  chaplain  to  Charles  L 
before  his  accession,  and  was  afterwards  his  chief 
almoner,  he  approved  of  Strafford's  attainder,  and 
took  the  popular  side  in  the  religious  disputes.  Three 
officers  on  tour  in  the  northern  counties  in  1634  came 
to  Carlisle,  visited  its  cathedral,  and  complained  of 
its  Puritan  usages.  The  cathedral,  they  said,  was 
"  nothing  near  so  fair  and  stately  as  those  we  had 
seen,  but  more  like  a  great  wild  country  church ;  as  it 
appeared  outwardly  so  was  it  inwardly,  ne'er  beautiful 
nor  adorned  one  whit.  The  organs  and  voices  did 
well  agree — the  one  being  like  a  shrill  bagpipe,  the 
other  like  a  Scottish  tune.  The  sermon,  in  the  like 
accent,  was  such  as  we  could  hardly  bring  away, 
though  it  was  delivered  by  a  neat  young  scholar,  sent 
that  morning  from  Rose  Castle,  the  bishop's  mansion, 
which  lies  upon  Rose  and  Caldew  rivers — one  of  the 
bishop's  chaplains,  to  supply  his  place  that  day. 
The  Communion  also  was  administered,  and  received 
in  a  wild  unreverent  manner." 

Bishop  Potter  died  early  in  1 642,  before  the  outbreak 
of  the  Civil  War,  and  his  successor,  James  Ussher, 
Archbishop  of  Armagh,  to  whom  Charles  I.  in  this 
year  gave  the  bishopric  of  Carlisle  in  commendam,  because 
his  Irish  possessions  were  destroyed  by  the  revolt  there 
against  Strafford's  rule,  really  played  to  that  king  the 
part  ascribed  to  Thomas  Merks  towards  Richard  II. 
He  tried  to  find  a  solution  of  the  great  question  of 
Church   government   that   was   exercising   everybody's 


ROSE   CASTLE  283 


mind,  and  suggested  an  arrangement  that  almost  threw 
over  episcopacy  to  save  the  ship  of  state,  an  arrange- 
ment that  Charles  I.  afterwards  declared  himself  will- 
ing to  accept.  By  it  the  mistrusted  bishops  were  only 
to  be  primi  inter  pares^  superintendents  of  councils  of 
presbyters,  and  not  to  act  without  their  advice. 
Shortly  afterwards  the  king,  "  betrayed  by  his  Privy 
Council,  deserted  by  his  judges,"  appealed  to  five  of 
his  bishops,  among  whom  was  the  Archbishop  of 
Armagh,  for  counsel  in  the  matter  of  Strafford's 
attainder ;  and  "  even  in  that  day  of  dereliction  and 
terror,  two  of  those  bishops  rose  superior  to  all  the 
alarms  of  earthly  evidence,  and  did  advise  their  wretched 
sovereign  not  to  do  anything  against  his  conscience, 
and  those  two  were  Archbishop  Ussher  and  Bishop 
Juxon  [Bishop  of  London]."  Afterwards,  when  it 
was  spread  about  that  Armagh  had  persuaded  Charles 
to  consent  to  Strafford's  attainder,  the  king  in  a  great 
passion  replied  "  that  it  was  false,  for  after  the  bill  was 
passed  the  Archbishop  came  to  me  saying  with  tears  in 
his  eyes,  '  Oh  sir,  what  have  you  done  .?  I  fear  that  this 
act  may  prove  a  great  trouble  to  your  conscience,  and 
pray  God  that  your  Majesty  may  never  suffer  by  the 
signing  of  this  bill.'  " 

Ussher  attended  on  Laud  from  the  time  of  his 
attainder  till  his  end  on  the  scaffold,  bore  him  many 
messages  from  the  king,  and  was  engaged  to  take 
him  these  last  words  from  Strafford :  "  Desire  the 
archbishop  to  lend  me  his  prayers  this  night,  and  to 
give  me  his  blessing  when  I  go  abroad  to-morrow,  and 
to  be  in  his  window,  that  by  my  last  farewell  I  may 
give  him  thanks  for  this  and  all  his  former  favours." 
Ussher  knelt  beside  Strafford  in  his  last  devotions  on 
the  block,  and  then  went  to  report  to  the  king  "  that 
he  had  seen   many  die,  but  never  saw  so  white  a  soul 


284       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

return  to  his  Maker."  His  name  was  included  in  the 
Ordinance  (20th  June  1643)  summoning  the  West- 
minster Assembly  of  Divines,  but  he  refused  to  attend, 
and  preached  against  the  legality  of  the  Assembly, 
summoned  as  it  was  without  the  consent  of  the  king. 
The  Commons  "  proceeded  to  inflict  the  severest 
punishment  they  could  upon  him,  by  confiscating  his 
noble  library,  then  deposited  at  Chelsea  College,"  and 
he  of  course  subsequently  lost,  like  other  bishops,  the 
revenues  of  his  see.  Dr.  Parr's  account  of  the  arch- 
bishop's behaviour  at  Charles  L's  execution  inevitably 
recalls  the  attitude  of  his  predecessor  on  the  question 
of  the  trial  of  Richard  IL  He  was  staying  at  Lady 
Peterborough's  house  near  Charing  Cross  on  the  day  of 
the  king's  execution,  and  "  divers  of  the  Countesse's 
gentlemen  and  servants  got  upon  the  leads  of  the 
house,  from  whence  they  could  see  plainly  what  was 
acting  at  Whitehall.  As  soon  as  his  Majesty  came 
upon  the  scaffold  some  of  the  household  came  and 
told  my  Lord  Primate  of  it,  and  askt  him  if  he 
would  see  the  king  once  more  before  he  was  put  to 
death.  My  lord  was  at  first  unwilling,  but  was  at  last 
perswaded  to  go  up  ;  as  well  out  of  his  desire  to  see 
his  Majesty  once  again,  as  also  curiosity,  since  he 
could  scarce  believe  what  they  told  him  unless  he  saw 
it.  When  he  came  upon  the  leads  the  king  was  in  his 
speech ;  the  Lord  Primate  stood  still  and  said  nothing, 
but  sighed,  and  lifting  up  his  hands  and  eyes  (full  of 
tears)  towards  Heaven,  seemed  to  pray  earnestly ;  but 
when  his  Majesty  had  done  speaking,  and  had  pulled 
off  his  cloak  and  doublet,  and  stood  stripped  in  his 
waistcoat,  and  that  the  villains  in  vizards  began  to  put 
up  his  hair,  the  good  bishop,  no  longer  able  to  endure 
so  dismal  a  sight,  and  being  full  of  grief  and  horror  for 
that  most  wicked  fact  now  about  to  be  executed,  grew 


ROSE   CASTLE  285 

pale  and  began  to  faint ;  so  that  if  he  had  not  been 
observed  by  his  own  servant  and  some  others  that 
stood  near  him  (who  thereupon  supported  him)  he 
had  swooned  away." 

Subsequently  the  archbishop's  widespread  fame  as 
a  scholar  led  Cromwell  to  extend  to  him  his  protec- 
tion. In  1654  he  was  nominated  as  one  of  fourteen 
bishops  to  draw  up  a  list  of  fundamentals  in  religion 
as  a  basis  of  toleration,  but  he  declined  to  act.  On 
his  death,  two  years  later,  he  was  buried,  by  the  Pro- 
tector's order,  in  Westminster  Abbey.  Nicolson  and 
Burn,  the  historians  of  Cumberland,  say  that  Cromwell 
gave  Ussher  this  tribute  "  out  of  an  honourable  respect 
to  so  learned  a  champion  of  the  Protestant  cause  "  ;  but, 
remarks  Hutchinson,  "  he  was  a  wretch  whose  soul 
could  not  be  touched  with  such  sentiments ;  hypocrisy 
or  some  low  and  selfish  view  entitled  him  to  display 
this  honour  and  pomp  at  the  interment  of  a  man 
whom  he  and  his  creatures  had  starved  to  death." 
The  historian  of  the  Restoration,  Bishop  Burnett  of 
Salisbury,  wrote  of  Ussher,  that  "  he  had  a  way  of 
gaining  people's  hearts  and  of  touching  their  con- 
sciences that  look'd  like  somewhat  of  the  apostolical 
age  reviv'd,"  but  "  he  had  too  gentle  a  soul  to  manage 
that  rough  work  of  reforming  abuses  :  and  therefore 
he  left  things  as  he  found  them.  He  hoped  a  time  of 
reformation  would  come.  .  .  .  But  though  he  prayed 
for  a  more  favourable  conjecture,  and  would  have 
concurred  in  a  joint  reformation  of  those  things  very 
heartily,  yet  he  did  not  bestir  himself  suitably  to 
the  obligations  that  lay  on  him  for  carrying  it  on :  and 
it  is  very  likely  that  this  sat  heavy  on  his  thoughts 
when  he  came  to  dye,  for  he  prayed  often  and  with 
great  humility  that  God  would  forgive  him  sins  of 
omission."     The  Irish  primate  seems  to  have  had  the 


286       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

scholar,  almost  the  Hamlet  temperament,  and  the  part 
he  played  in  his  stirring  times,  though  an  honourable, 
was  an  ineffectual  one.  But  he  was  celebrated  then, 
and  is  still  used,  for  his  historical  researches.  He 
threw  new  light  on  to  early  Irish  history  and  on  to 
the  history  of  the  creed,  the  Ignatian  problem,  and 
other  patristic  points ;  and  his  name  is  still  to  many 
people  a  household  sight  (as  his  system  of  scriptural 
chronology  was  employed  in  the  Authorised  Version 
of  the  English  Bible),  and  is  the  greatest  connected 
with  the  bishopric  of  Carlisle. 

Ussher  had  restored  the  Royalist  traditions  of  the 
bishops.  The  diocese  had  all  along  been  sympathetic, 
and  the  city  itself  and  the  bishop's  castle  also  remained 
faithful  throughout.  Carlisle  Castle  was  garrisoned 
for  Charles  during  both  Bishops'  Wars,  and  as  the  Scots 
entered  England  by  Berwick,  and  for  a  long  time  the 
main  current  of  the  Civil  War  rolled  away  from  Cum- 
berland, it  became  a  camp  of  refuge  for  the  king's 
party.  In  October  1644,  however,  manned  by  a 
garrison  of  700  men,  it  was  besieged  by  the  Scottish 
commander,  General  Leslie,  on  his  way  back  from 
capturing  Newcastle,  with  a  force  of  4000.  Failing 
to  take  it  by  storm,  Leslie  sat  down  and  starved  out 
the  garrison.  The  heroic  defenders,  with  a  spirit 
which  may  well  be  contrasted  with  that  of  a  hundred 
years  later,  were  in  the  following  June  eating  dogs, 
rats,  and  hempseed,  with  a  very  occasional  slice  of 
horse,  and  held  out  eleven  days  after  the  defeat  of 
the  king  at  Naseby  had  taken  away  all  hope  of  their 
being  relieved.  Even  then  they  kept  up  the  traditions 
of  the  best  days  of  the  Borders  by  plying  the  solemn 
Scotch  envoys  with  their  one  remaining  cask  of  ale 
until  the  latter  were  too  drunk  to  treat. 

After  the  surrender  of  Carlisle,  Colonel  Hevering- 


ROSE   CASTLE  287 


ham's  regiment  turned  aside  to  Rose  Castle,  which  was 
said  to  be  a  strong  place,  and  was  defended  by  its  con- 
stable and  a  garrison  of  twenty  or  thirty  men.  Rose 
Castle  at  this  time  was  still  built  in  the  mediaeval  way  on 
its  quadrangular  plan.  It  had  five  towers,  and  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  turreted  wall.  It  was  captured  by  the 
parliamentary  forces,  and  subsequently  used  to  detain 
Royalist  prisoners.  Carlisle  Castle  was  garrisoned  by 
the  Scots,  who  pulled  down  and  mutilated  most  of  the 
cathedral  buildings  in  order  to  destroy  popery,  and  also 
to  obtain  materials  for  the  repair  of  the  city  defences. 
The  Cavaliers  made  an  attempt  to  reconquer  Carlisle 
in  the  autumn  of  1645,  but  failed. 

All  England  was  now  in  the  hands  of  the  Scots  and 
the  parliamentary  forces,  but  Carlisle  was  evacuated  at 
the  end  of  1646,  in  return  for  a  sum  of  money  paid 
by  the  Parliament  to  the  Scots,  for  the  former  had 
begun  to  feel  anxious  at  this  encroachment  of  the  latter 
on  England. 

In  1647  the  English  army  presented  its  ultimatum 
to  Charles  I.,  insisting  on  the  abolition  of  episcopacy. 
Charles  I.  refused  to  agree,  fled  to  Carisbrook  Castle, 
and  was  kept  there  as  a  prisoner.  In  1648  Royalist 
risings  commenced  and  the  second  Civil  War  began. 
The  Cavaliers  seized  Berwick-on-Tweed  and  Carlisle. 
Sir  Marmaduke  Langdale,  the  Royalist  colonel-general 
of  the  five  northern  counties,  appointed  a  Cumberland 
gentleman.  Sir  Philip  Musgrave,  commander-in-chief 
in  Cumberland  and  Westmorland  and  governor  of 
Carlisle.  "  Sir  Philip  went  to  the  Borders  and  some 
of  his  countrymen  came  secretly  to  him,  and  by  his 
order  sixteen  men  entered  Carlisle,  and  presently  made 
themselves  masters  of  the  place.  .  .  .  There  was  then 
so  great  rain  and  unusuall  high  floods,  as  Sir  Philip 
could  by  no  means  pass  the  rivers  until  May  the  first 


288       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 


(this  he  apprehended  to  be  ominous),  but  at  his  coming 
to  Carlile,  many  gentlemen  of  the  county,  and  from 
severall  other  parts,  came  speedily  thither,"  and  the 
castle  was  garrisoned  by  the  Scots,  now,  however,  in 
the  royal  interest ;  for  the  Scots  were  alienated  from 
the  Parliament  since  it  had  deserted  Presbyterianism. 
The  parliamentary  forces  held  Penrith,  and  in  June  Sir 
Marmaduke  Langdale's  forces  met  another  Royalist 
army  under  the  Duke  of  Hamilton  at  Rose  Castle  and 
marched  south.  Hamilton,  however,  the  last  hope  of 
the  Royalists,  was  defeated  by  Cromwell  at  Preston  on 
August  17,  and  the  second  Civil  War  came  to  an 
end.  On  ist  October  following  Carlisle  surrendered. 
Rose  Castle,  like  Carlisle,  had  again  came  into  Royalist 
hands  and  was  manned  with  forty  men.  It  was  besieged 
by  a  commanded  party  of  200  foot.  The  p-overnor 
refused  two  summonses  to  surrender  and  the  castle 
was  then  stormed  and  taken  after  a  siege  of  two  hours. 
It  was  burned  by  order  of  Major  Cholmley,  and  never 
received  again  its  turreted  wall  and  never  again  was 
built  round  its  old  quadrangular  courtyard.  "  Rose 
Castle,  the  bishop's  best  seat,"  wrote  Fuller,  "  hath 
lately  the  rose  therein  withered,  and  the  prickles  in 
the  ruins  thereof  alone  remain."  It  is  difficult  to 
decide  into  which  of  the  two  sieges  of  Rose  Captain 
Philip  Ellis  fits.  After  the  Restoration,  in  1662,  it 
was  certified  to  the  king  that  Captain  Philip  Ellis,  of 
Rose  Castle,  Cumberland,  was  zealous  and  orthodox, 
had  raised  troops  at  his  own  expense  for  the  late  king, 
served  four  years  without  pay,  was  at  the  siege  of 
Carlisle,  stood  a  siege  in  his  own  castle,  which  was 
taken,  lost  more  than  ^3000,  was  imprisoned  for 
twenty-six  weeks,  and  subsequently  refused  all  offers 
of  service  from  the  Parliament.  At  the  sales  of 
bishops'    lands    in    1649    Colonel    Heveringham,    or 


ROSE    CASTLE  289 

Heveningham,  above-mentioned,  one  of  the  high 
court  of  justice  that  in  the  preceding  January  had 
tried  Charles  I.,  purchased  the  manors  of  Dalston, 
Rose  Castle,  and  Linstock,  the  possessions  of  the 
see  of  Carlisle,  and  is  said  to  have  had  the  offices  at 
Rose  Castle  newly  fitted  up  for  his  own  habitation. 
At  the  Restoration  Heveringham,  who  had  refused  to 
sign  Charles  L's  death-warrant  and  petitioned  the  Lords 
four  times  for  mercy,  was  sentenced  to  death.  He 
was  reprieved  owing  to  the  efforts  of  his  relations,  the 
Careys,  Earls  of  Dover,  but  he  was  kept  prisoner  at 
Windsor  Castle  until  his  death  in  1678. 

The  restored  bishopric  now  became  the  reward  of 
faithful  Royalists.  It  was  first  offered,  in  1660,  to  Dr. 
Richard  Gilpin,  rector  of  Greystoke,  who  refused  it 
because  he  would  not  sign  the  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant ;  and  then  to  Richard  Sterne,  who  had  been 
Master  of  Jesus  College,  Cambridge,  and  chaplain  to 
Archbishop  Laud.  He  was  arrested  and  imprisoned, 
as  Cromwell,  then  a  burgess  of  Cambridge,  happened 
to  know  that  he  had  conveyed  the  plate  of  his  college 
to  the  king  at  York.  He  was  released,  but  his  livings 
were  taken  from  him.  Preferred  to  the  see  of  Carlisle 
in  1660,  Sterne  soon  came  into  ill  odour  with  the 
remaining  Puritans,  and  contemporaries  and  subse- 
quent historians  have  painted  him  white  or  black 
according  to  their  religious  aspect.  "  Among  all  the 
bishops,"  wrote  the  Presbyterian  divine,  Baxter  (author 
of  the  still  well-known  book  The  Saints'  Everlasting 
Rest),  in  indignation,  after  the  Savoy  Conference,  at 
which  the  Presbyterian  and  Episcopalian  parties  met 
in  1 66 1  to  discuss  Church  government  and  the  liturgy, 
"  Among  all  the  bishops,  there  was  none  had  so  pro- 
mising a  face  as  Dr.  Sterne,  the  Bishop  of  Carlisle. 
He  look'd  so  honestly,  and  gravely,  and  soberly,  that 

T 


290       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

I  scarce  thought  such  a  face  could  have  deceived  me  ; 
and  when  I  was  intreating  them  not  to  cast  out  so 
many  of  their  brethren  through  the  nation,  as  scrupuled 
a  ceremony  which  they  confessed  indifferent,  he  turn'd 
to  the  rest  of  the  reverend  bishops  and  noted  me  for 
saying  '  in  the  nation.'  '  He  will  not  say  in  the  king- 
dom,' saith  he,  'lest  he  own  a  king.'  This  was  all  I 
ever  heard  that  worthy  bishop  say.  But  with  grief  I 
told  him  that  half  the  charity  which  became  so  grave 
a  bishop  might  have  sufficed  to  have  helpt  him  to  a 
better  exposition  of  the  word." 

Sterne  was  translated  to  York  in  1664,  and  although 
he  had  undertaken  the  very  necessary  restorations  at 
Rose,  and  actually  rebuilt  the  chapel,  the  work  had 
been  so  badly  carried  out  that  it  had  to  be  done  over 
again,  and  he  was  sued  by  his  successor,  the  worthy 
Bishop  Rainbowe,  for  dilapidations.  Rainbowe  com- 
plained to  the  king  that  his  predecessor  had  had  as 
much  money  for  fines  of  leases  and  casualties  as  might 
have  repaired  or  rebuilt  the  castle,  but  had  only  fitted 
up  the  few  rooms  that  had  survived  its  destruction  in 
the  Civil  War,  and  built  some  outhouses,  leaving  the 
rest  as  a  burden  to  his  successor.  In  the  end  Sterne 
was  forced  to  pay  ;^400  as  dilapidations. 

Dr.  Rainbowe,  an  example  of  the  best  type  of 
priest  of  that  time,  had  been  a  staunch  and  more  or 
less  open  adherent  to  royalty,  episcopacy,  and  the 
liturgy  under  the  Commonwealth.  He  had  lost  his 
Mastership  of  Magdalene  College,  Cambridge,  but 
at  the  Restoration  was  successively  made  chaplain  to 
Charles  II.,  Dean  of  Peterborough,  and  Vice-Chancellor 
of  the  University  of  Cambridge.  Though  a  good,  he 
was  not  a  great  man,  but  he  met,  as  they  used  to  do, 
an  enthusiastic  biographer  with  a  pleasing  literary  style. 
In   1664,  "beyond  his  wishes,"  says  this  biographer, 


ROSE   CASTLE  291 

he  was  elected  Bishop  of  Carlisle.  "  His  truly  Primi- 
tive temper  put  him  upon  the  declining  of  that  high 
and  honourable  Employment  in  the  Church  ;  the  great 
Care  of  so  many  Souls  as  would  thereby  be  devolved 
upon  him,  affrighted  and  deterr'd  him  a  while  from  em- 
bracing that  Honour  which  so  many  court  in  vain.  .  .  . 
Overcome  at  last  with  the  Desires  and  Arguments  of 
his  Friends,  he  accepted  of  that  Honourable  Dignity." 
The  trouble  about  dilapidations  in  which  he  was  almost 
immediately  embarked  with  his  metropolitan  was,  we 
are  told,  "  both  repugnant  to  his  Meeke  Nature,  and 
was  (in  his  Thoughts)  unbecoming  Persons  of  that 
Sacred  Character."  After  this  suit  was  concluded  he 
rebuilt  the  chapel  at  Rose  Castle  and  made  several 
other  additions  and  conveniences  there.  "  But  tho' 
these  Edifices  were  costly  as  well  as  Troublesom ;  yet 
there  was  another  sort  of  Building  which  he  was  more 
intent  upon,  the  Building  of  God's  Church  in  the 
Spiritual  Sense."  He  determined  in  his  own  life  to 
set  his  clergy  "  a  Copy  as  legible  as  his  human  Frailties 
would  permit  it  to  be  written."  "  Pursuant  of  his 
Pious  design,  he  Preached  not  only  in  his  Courses  at 
the  Cathedral,  but  often  there  also  upon  occasional 
days ;  as  also  frequently  at  his  own  Chappel  at  Ross 
[Rose],  at  Dalston  Church,  and  the  adjacent  Chappels, 
till  hindred  from  this  performance  by  the  Gout ;  the 
Racks  of  this  were  not  probably  more  troublesom  than 
their  Consequence."  He  made  the  paths  of  religion 
into  pleasantness  by  giving  about  20s.  to  the  poor  at 
Carlisle,  when  it  was  his  turn  to  preach  there,  "  that 
his  liberality  might  tempt  them  to  listen  to  his  Doctrine. 
His  allowance  to  the  Poor  of  Dalston  Parish  (within 
the  limits  of  which  Rose-Castle  stands)  was  30s.  a 
Month,  besides  what  was  given  them  at  his  Castle- 
Gates,  and  to  Sick  People  ;  not  to  mention  what  was 


292      EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

given  them  at  Sacraments,  and  upon  other  Occasions. 
In  Dear  Years,  when  his  own  stock  of  Corn  was  spent 
he  ordered  Barley  to  be  bought  at  12s.  or  14s,  per 
Bushel,  and  to  be  given  to  the  Poor ;  which  came  then 
in  such  great  numbers  to  the  Gates,  that  the  Porter 
who  served  them,  having  sometimes  the  curiosity  to 
tell  them,  affirmed,  that  he  often  serv'd  Seven  or 
Eightscore  people  in  one  and  the  same  day."  "  How 
often,"  exclaimed  the  preacher  of  his  funeral  sermon, 
"  have  the  Loins  of  the  naked  blessed  him,  for  being 
warmed  with  the  fleece  of  his  Sheep."  "  The  Govern- 
ment of  his  private  Family,"  continues  the  biographer, 
"  was  modelled  in  imitation  of  that  of  the  Church ; 
that  is.  Regular.  Four  times  a  day  was  God  publickly 
call'd  upon  by  Prayers  in  that  Family ;  twice  in  the 
Chappel,  which  part  his  Lordship's  Chaplains  per- 
form'd ;  and  twice  in  the  Dining-Room ;  the  later 
of  these,  at  Six  in  the  Morning  and  Nine  at  night,  was 
the  usual  Task  of  our  Right  Reverend  and  Worthy 
Prelate  himself,  if  not  disabled  by  Sickness.  As  if  he 
who  was  the  Master  of  the  Family,  would  open  it 
every  Morning,  and  lock  it  up  every  Night,  by  the 
Key  of  Prayer."  After  an  episcopate  of  nearly  twenty 
years,  the  King  of  Terrors  found  the  good  bishop  pre- 
pared to  receive  him,  "  not  as  an  Enemy,  but  as  a 
welcom  Friend " ;  only,  we  are  pathetically  told, 
"  He  had  indeed  begged  of  God  that  he  might  over- 
live Lady-Day,  because  it  would  much  conduce  to  the 
Profit  of  his  then  Consort,  and  since  Mournful  Widow. 
And  this  seems  to  have  been  granted  to  him,  since  he 
survived  the  return  of  that  time  no  more  than  one 
day."  This  last  story  shows  that  the  bishop's  bene- 
factions had  entailed  the  life  of  poverty  on  himself 
and  his  family. 

Rainbowe's  successor,  Thomas  Smith,  is  remembered 


ROSE   CASTLE  29. 


as  a  great  benefactor  of  Carlisle  city  and  see.  As 
Dean  of  Carlisle  he  had  rebuilt  the  deanery  and 
presented  the  cathedral  with  an  organ,  so  that  the 
parishioners  no  longer  had  to  listen  to  the  instrument 
likened  by  the  three  officers  to  the  bagpipes  :  and  as 
bishop  he  endowed  Carlisle  Grammar  School,  the 
Chapter  library,  and  the  cathedral  treasury.  Altogether 
he  spent  over  ,^^5000  in  buildings  and  charities.  He 
altered  the  house  and  stables  at  Rose,  and  built  a  new 
tower  and  court  walls  there  and  a  pigeon-cote.  All 
over  the  country  Jacobean  architecture,  with  its  pic- 
turesque juxtaposition  of  classical  and  Gothic  details, 
was  giving  way  to  a  more  correct  use  of  the  orders  of 
architecture ;  but  Cumberland  seems  never  even  to 
have  heard  of  the  orders  of  architecture,  for  Thomas 
Machell,  Vicar  of  Kirkby  Thore  and  a  local  historian, 
claims  to  have  been  the  first  who  introduced  "  regular  " 
architecture  into  these  parts.  He  assisted  Bishop 
Smith  in  rebuilding  Rose  Castle.  "He  seems,"  says 
Ferguson,  "  to  have  made  a  new  central  front  en- 
trance into  what  was  formerly  the  Constable's  Tower, 
to  have  formed  his  door  with  cornice  and  frieze  over, 
balanced  in  due  course  with  windows  on  each  side  :  to 
have  inserted  similar  windows  in  the  Bell  Tower." 

Bishop  Nicolson,  who  in  1702  followed  Bishop 
Smith,  and  who  had  been  Secretary  of  State  to 
Charles  II.,  was  in  a  different  v/ay  a  benefactor  to  his 
diocese  through  his  literary  labours.  Bishop  Rainbowe 
had  been  a  good  scholar,  but  it  was  almost  in  the 
mediaeval  schoolman's  way.  Bishop  Nicolson  inaugu- 
rated the  more  modern  type  of  bishop,  who  is  of  lay 
importance  and  uses  his  leisure  in  the  service  of  secular 
scholarship.  He  himself  published  a  collection  of 
Border  Laws  in  1705,  and  his  collections  of  MSS. 
relating  to  Cumberland  have  been  used  in  all  succeeding 


294      EPISCOPAL  PALACES   OF  YORK 

histories  of  that   county.     He   is   said   to   have   been 
"  a  drinking  fellow  and  boon  companion  "  at  Oxford, 
but  was  a  great  worker ;  and  he  reminds  us   of   the 
delightful  divines  that  Thomas  Love   Peacock   drew, 
who    managed    to  be  worthy  pastors  of  the  flock  of 
Christ    and    yet    Epicuri   de  grege    porci.      Chancellor 
Ferguson  has  thus  drawn  Nicolson's    character    from 
his  hitherto  unpublished  journals  :   "  A  man  of  great 
personal  strength,  capable  of  riding  enormous  distances, 
and  who  thought  nothing  of  preaching  in  the  cathedral 
and  of  then  walking  out  to  Rose ;  who,  as  archdeacon, 
spent  his  holidays  in  hunting,  and  was  not  above  taking 
an  interest  in  a  cock-fight  "  (by  the  by,  there  is  a  cockpit 
belonging  to  Rose  Castle)  :   "  fond  of  a  good  dinner,  a 
scholar,  an  antiquary,  a  linguist,  ambitious  and  pushing, 
afraid  of  no  one,  a  man  who  would  have  his  own  way." 
At  the  time  of  the  fall  of  the  Stuarts  in  1689,  he 
was  only  Archdeacon  of  Carlisle,  but  a  great  power  in 
the  diocese,  and  addressed  a  sensible  and  characteristic 
letter    to    the    clergy,   many   of  whom   were   staunch 
Jacobeans :   "  The  short  of  our  case  is,  the  late  king 
was  pleased  unexpectedly  to  leave  us ;  and  their  pre- 
sent Majesties  have   stepped  into   the    throne   as   the 
next  lawful  successors.     And  where  is  the  mischief  of 
all  this  ?     You  and  I  are  not  called  upon  to  give  our 
assent  to  every  vote  that  is  passed  in  either  House  of 
Parliament  in  the  management  of  this  matter,  and  I 
hope  we  never  shall.     But  I  think  we  ought  thank- 
fully to  join  in  the  last  result  of  their  councils,  that 
William  and  Mary,  Prince  and  Princess  of  Orange,  are 
honestly  and  legally  seated    on    the    English    throne. 
And  this  may  be  done  without  an  unnecessary  acquaint- 
ing   the    world   with   our   opinion   whether   the   royal 
dignity  has  devolved  upon  them  by  right  of  succes- 
sion or  they  have  obtained  it  by  a  new  grant  from  the 


ROSE   CASTLE  295 

people."  He  is  said  to  have  been  a  Tory  in  early 
life,  but  changed  in  order  to  court  "ye  figure  of  ye 
Loggerhead  at  Lambeth,"  and  indeed  got  into  trouble 
for  his  officiousness  in  the  Whig  interests.  The 
election  at  Carlisle  caused  immense  and  quite  modern 
excitement,  and  Bishop  Nicolson  is  said  to  have 
threatened  his  cathedral  choir  with  dismissal  if  they 
did  not  vote  for  the  Whig  candidate,  Montague.  The 
bishop  was  very  nearly  disturbed  in  his  house  at  Rose 
by  the  feeble  Jacobite  rising  of  17 15. 

The  Scots,  still  faithful  to  the  Stuarts,  entered 
England  this  way  to  reinstate  the  Pretender,  James 
Stuart,  on  the  English  throne.  The  bishop  wrote  to 
Archbishop  Wake  that  the  rebels  had  acknowledged 
their  intention  of  paying  him  a  visit,  "  and  to  that  end 
hovered  a  whole  day  on  the  banks  of  the  Eden,  five 
miles  below  Carlisle.  But  as  Providence  ordered  the 
matter,  the  rains  had  then  so  swelled  the  waters  there, 
that  they  were  not  fordable.  This  preserved  my  beef 
and  mutton  for  the  present.  They  sent  me  word  that 
these  provisions  were  only  kept  in  store  for  the  Earl  of 
Mar,  who  they  said  would  assuredly  be  with  me  in  ten 
days'  time.  His  Honour  (or  Grace)  is  not  yet  arrived  ; 
and  I  begin  now  to  fancy  that  he'll  hardly  ever  bring 
any  great  retinue  this  way.  .  .  .  Our  greatest  danger, 
as  we  think,  is  from  the  return  of  the  poor  hungry 
Highlanders,  should  they  be  scattered  into  parties  (as 
'tis  ten  thousand  to  one  but  they  will  be)  by  General 
Wills,  and  left  to  make  the  best  of  their  way  back  to 
their  own  old  reeky  cells  in  the  Braes  of  Athol."  If 
the  "  poor  hungry  Highlanders  "  had  returned  by  way 
of  Rose,  one  imagines  that  the  bishop  would  have  given 
them  an  example  of  the  Church  militant  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  One  can  see  him  merrily  discovering 
the  lance  that  Bishop  Kirkby  bore  when  he  laid  aside  the 


296       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

crook,  and,  calling  out  in  his  clerkly  way,  "  Give  them 
the  beef  and  mutton  ?  Pessimo  medius  fidius  exemplo  ! 
Pro  aris  etfocis !  that  is,  for  beef  and  mutton  and  fires 
to  roast  them,"  sally  forth  like  the  Reverend  Gilbert 
FoUiot,  when  Captain  Swing  burst  into  Chainmail  Hall, 
and  put  the  "  rascally  rabble  "  to  flight. 

Bishop  Nicolson  was  translated  in  1 7 1 8  to  London- 
derry, and  succeeded  at  Carlisle  by  Samuel  Bradford, 
who,  says  Chancellor  Ferguson,  "  found  his  way  down 
to  his  see  about  a  year  after  he  had  been  appointed, 
and  spent  a  fortnight  in  making  a  visitation  of  it." 
He  was  translated  to  Rochester  in  1723,  and  succeeded 
by  John  Waugh,  who  was  in  1734  succeeded  by  Sir 
George  Fleming,  fifth  son  of  Sir  Daniel  Fleming  of 
Rydal,  Westmorland.  Sir  George  Fleming  died  at  the 
advanced  age  of  eighty  in  1747.  He  was  historically 
incorrect  enough  to  make  no  movement  for  the  White 
Rose  in  the  '45.  In  November  1745  Charles  Edward 
Stuart  landed  on  the  coast  of  Scotland,  and  with  a  few 
raw  and  undisciplined  troops  marched  south  to  Carlisle. 
On  November  9  the  Mayor  of  Carlisle  was  sum- 
moned to  provide  billets  for  13,000  of  the  prince's 
soldiers,  but  refused  to  do  so  ;  whereupon  the  Young 
Pretender's  forces  besieged  the  city,  which,  unused  to 
war  as  it  had  grown,  surrendered  on  the  15th  follow- 
ing. James  III.  was  proclaimed  king  at  the  market 
cross,  and  the  prince  received  the  keys  of  the  city. 
An  indignant  Georgian  patriot  wrote  a  lampoon  on  the 
incompetent  deputy  to  whom  the  incompetent  mayor 
had  resigned  his  charge,  a  lampoon  that  swelled  to  its 
climax  in  the  apostrophe — 

"  O  front  of  brass,  and  brain  of  ass  ! " 

This  great  success  was  the  only  one  of  the  war. 
The  prince's  army  swelled  by  the  way,  and  he  arrived 


ROSE    CASTLE  297 

safely  at  Derby,  and  was  himself  eager  to  press  onward 
to  London,  but  was  obliged  to  take  the  advice  of  his 
generals  and  fall  back  on  Carlisle.  From  this  time  the 
Jacobite  cause  was  doomed,  and  Charles  Edward,  ac- 
cepting his  fate,  on  December  21  left  a  garrison  in 
Carlisle  that  there  was  no  gleam  of  hope  of  relieving. 
At  the  end  of  the  month,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  at 
the  head  of  George  II. 's  army,  entered  the  city.  The 
rebel  garrison  could  obtain  no  conditions  of  surrender, 
but  it  was  not  until  the  autumn  of  the  following  year 
that  the  ninety-six  prisoners  of  war  met  their  end  on 
Gallows  or  Harriby  Hill,  the  old  '*  Hairibee  "  of  the 
moss-trooper.  Rose  Castle,  according  to  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  had  had  its  share  in  these  adventures.  After 
the  capture  of  Carlisle  by  Prince  Charlie,  a  detach- 
ment of  his  troops  is  said  to  have  gone  on  to  Rose, 
as  they  had  heard  that  it  was  worth  plundering.  On 
being  informed,  however,  that  the  birth  of  the  bishop's 
granddaughter  had  just  taken  place  within  its  walls. 
Captain  Macdonald,  its  leader,  mercifully  refrained 
from  making  any  further  entrance  than  into  the  coach- 
yard,  where  he  and  his  men  were  regaled  with  beef, 
cheese,  ale,  and  other  cheer.  On  hearing  that  the 
infant  was  at  that  moment  being  christened,  the 
captain  took  the  white  cockade  from  his  bonnet : 
"  Let  her  be  christened  with  this  cockade  in  her  cap," 
he  said  ;  "  it  will  be  her  protection  now,  and  after,  if 
any  of  our  stragglers  should  come  this  way  :  we  will 
await  the  ceremony  in  silence."  The  heroine  of  this 
episode,  Rosemary  Clerk,  narrated  it  in  1817,  ^'"^d 
stated  that  the  white  cockade  was  still  carefully  pre- 
served, and  that  she  had  been  taught  by  this  event  to 
respect  all  Scotchmen,  and  Highlanders  in  particular. 
With  black  ingratitude,  however,  she  afterwards  gave 
it  to  George  IV. 


298       EPISCOPAL    PALACES  OF    YORK 

The  prince  is  said,  but  very  improbably,  to  have 
nominated,  while  he  was  there,  a  young  priest  called 
Cappoch  to  be  Bishop  of  Carlisle.  This  priest,  ac- 
cording to  a  libellous  Life  and  Character^  written  by 
"  a  gentleman  who  attended  the  prisoners  at  Carlisle 
both  before  and  after  their  condemnation,"  was  a 
mixture  of  Friar  Tuck,  Autolycus,  and  a  Byronic 
hero.  At  school  he  had  been  "  so  unlucky "  that 
his  master  could  not  manage  him,  and  had  gained 
so  bad  a  character  in  Manchester,  his  native  place, 
"that  no  Body  would  have  any  Concern  with  him." 
He  went  to  the  University  of  Oxford,  and,  after  being 
sent  down,  led  a  variously  disreputable  existence, 
"  associating  only  with  Nonjurors  and  Jacobites,  and 
all  such  as  were  disaffected  to  the  Government."  He 
forged  a  bishop's  handwriting  in  order  to  recommend 
himself  as  a  curate,  and  became  chaplain  in  the  Man- 
chester Regiment  of  the  Young  Pretender's  army. 
As  chaplain  he  had  been  more  dissolute  than  any 
of  the  prince's  soldiers.  "  After  he  was  made  Bishop 
of  Carlisle  by  the  Young  Pretender,  whenever  he 
preach'd  or  read  Prayers,  he  us'd  to  wear  a  Hanger 
by  his  side,  and  patrol'd  the  Walls  of  the  castle  every 
night  with  a  Firelock,  the  same  as  the  rest  of  the 
Rebel  Officers."  He  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland  at  Carlisle,  but  was  quite  undismayed. 
He  spent  his  time  in  Carlisle  Gaol  instructing  his 
fellow-prisoners  how  to  cut  their  irons  by  means  of 
a  case  knife,  a  drinking  glass,  and  a  silk  handkerchief; 
and  by  that  means  seven  of  them  got  loose.  When 
the  *'  bishop "  (probably,  it  is  suggested,  this  was 
a  soubriquet  given  him  at  the  mess  of  the  Manchester 
Regiment)  was  informed  that  he  was  to  die,  "  it  made 
very  little  impression  upon  him."  He  jeered  at  those 
who  were  downcast.      "  Ye  puppy,"  he  observed  to 


ROSE   CASTLE  299 


one  (using  the  very  word  of  Autolycus),  "  we  shan't 
be  tried  by  a  Cumberland  jury  in  the  other  world." 
The  anonymous  biographer  unwittingly  shows,  even 
on  his  own  statements,  that  Cappoch  had  more  in 
him  than  he  chose  to  let  appear,  and  this  baffling 
speech  shows  that  he  was  no  more  a  subject  for  the 
moralist  in  the  street  than  for  a  Cumberland  jury. 
After  he  was  tied  to  the  gallows  he  read  a  treason- 
able sermon,  prayed  for  the  Pretender,  his  son,  and 
all  the  Stuart  family,  called  King  George  a  usurper, 
handed  his  sermon  to  the  sheriff,  and  underwent  his 
penalty.  He  and  the  other  offenders  were  hanged 
for  seven  minutes,  drawn  in  the  antique  way,  before 
their  own  eyes,  and  their  heads  placed  on  Carlisle 
Tower.  The  surgeon  to  whom  he  is  said  to  have 
sold  his  body  on  the  eve  before  his  trial  for  two 
shillings  and  a  bottle  of  wine,  perhaps  made  a  fair 
bargain. 

The  '45  gives  for  the  first  time  a  sentimental 
association  to  Carlisle.  While  the  Scottish  Borders 
are  still  haunted  by  the  ghosts  of  those  whose  bodies, 
slain  in  war  or  feud,  lie  deep  in  Yarrow,  so  that 
Wordsworth  wandering  by  the  literary  stream  longed 
for  the  merry  minstrel's  strain,  the  great  fortress-city 
by  the  Eden,  the  point  from  which  all  the  destroying 
armies  set  forth  and  the  place  where  one  and  all  the 
captured  Border  thieves  met  their  end,  in  defiance, 
moreover,  of  the  implication  of  two  famous  beatitudes 
on  peoples  that  leave  no  annals  and  have  few  laws 
but  obey  them,  managed  to  be  called,  until  most  of 
her  troubles  were  over,  "  Merry  Carlisle,"  The  '45 
gave  her  a  ballad  such  as  were  spun  in  the  "  dowie 
dens  of  Yarrow."  The  maiden  who  is  seeking  her 
lover  comes  upon  all  that  remains  of  him  stuck  on 
Carlisle  gate. 


300       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

"  His  lang,  lang  hair  in  yellow  hanks 

Waved  o'er  his  cheeks  sae  sweet  and  ruddie ; 
But  now  they  wave  o'er  Carlisle  yetts 
In  dripping  ringlets  clotting  bloodie. 

My  father's  blood's  in  that  flower  top, 
My  brother's  in  that  harebell  blossom ; 

This  white  rose  was  steeped  in  my  luve's  blood, 
An'  I'll  ay  wear  it  in  my  bosom. 

When  I  first  cam  by  merry  Carlisle, 
Was  ne'er  a  town  sae  sweetly  seeming ; 

The  white  rose  flaunted  o'er  the  wall, 
The  thistled  banners  far  were  streaming  ! 

When  I  cam  next  by  merry  Carlisle, 
O  sad,  sad  seem'd  the  town,  an'  eerie  ! 

The  auld,  auld  men  came  out  and  wept ; 
'  O  maiden,  come  ye  to  seek  yere  dearie  ?  '  " 

This  ballad  marks  the  change  in  the  spirit  of  the 
age.  One  of  the  greatest  charms  of  the  early  Borderers 
was  the  lightness  in  which  they  held  their  lives.  Even 
a  hundred  years  before,  the  maiden  would  not  have 
found  Carlisle  sad  and  eerie  after  a  batch  of  execu- 
tions. The  starving  garrison  at  the  end  of  the  Civil 
War  summoned  up  spirit  enough  to  play  practical 
jokes.  But  now  the  prosperous,  civilising  years  had 
done  their  work,  made  bloodshed  less  common 
and  more  feared.  The  predatory  priest  who  dared 
to  assume  the  title  of  Bishop  of  Carlisle  was  the 
last  person  to  swing  with  a  jest  in  his  mouth  on 
"  Hairibee." 

In  the  following  year  Richard  Osbaldeston,  Dean 
of  York,  royal  chaplain,  and  one  of  George  III.'s  early 
tutors,  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Carlisle.  He  was 
very  little  at  Rose  Castle,  and  was  in  1762  translated 
to  the  see  of  London.  Dr.  Lyttleton,  who  succeeded 
him  at  Carlisle,  was  furious  at  the  condition  in  which 


ROSE   CASTLE  301 


Rose  Castle  had  been  left.     Before  he  came  down  his 
servant  wrote  him  this  delightful  letter  : — 

"  I  know  not  how  to  proseed  to  get  this  house  in 
any  order  for  your  Lordship's  coming,  hear  is  a  great 
deail  wants  to  be  Done,  Severall  windows  being  very 
Bad,  Ready  to  fall.  Several  Dores  not  fit  to  Stand, 
Espeachily  in  the  Brewhouse,  where  the  Derns  and 
Dore  are  Just  Dov/ne,  the  flowrs  Extraimly  bad,  in 
Sume  of  the  Rums  Large  hols  and  Sunk  Just  Ready 
to  Brack  through,  ...  I  have  Considred  abought 
Hanging  the  Rums,  and  as  there  is  Space  betwine  the 
walls  and  the  Hangings  and  the  Rats  are  so  very 
plenty  thay  will  most  Likley  Eate  the  Hangins  at  the 
first  putting  up ;  and  I  find  all  the  Bords  yousd 
abought  this  house  are  from  the  Trees  Cut  downe 
hear,  if  I  Could  get  Some  thin  Bords  to  put  the  Paper 
upon  it  wold  be  Dryar  and  Secure  from  the  Rats,  and 
I  believe  not  much  more  Expence.  ...  I  am  very 
Loth  to  Trouble  your  Lordship  with  what  I  Sopose 
cannot  be  Recalld,  yet  I  thinke  it  my  Duity  to  Say 
your  Lordship  has  not  had  Justes  Done  you  in  the 
appraisment  of  the  Goods,  it  is  not  Possabil  for  me  to 
menchon  how  many  yousless  and  Worthless  things 
hear  be,  but  hear  is  a  ould  painted  oyle  Cloth  with 
very  great  hols  in  it ;  the  maid  in  the  House  says  it 
never  was  yousd  in  ye  Late  Bishops  time,  but  Cramd 
into  a  Littel  Closset ;  it  is  of  no  valle,  but  it  is  vailed 
to  your  Lordship  at  12  shelings.  there  is  fore  plain 
Shelves  in  a  Closet  by  your  Lordship's  Bedchamber 
maid  of  the  Bords,  timber  Cut  Down  hear ;  I  believe 
a  man  wold  put  them  up  in  two  Days,  thay  are  vailled 
at  /I3.10.0 — in  Shorrt  it  is  all  of  a  peece,  the  Best  and 
only  furniture  fit  for  your  Lordship  is  the  Mahogany 
Tables  and  Drayrs  and  12  very  ordenery  Chiars  in  the 
Best  Paller,  but  new  by  the  Last  Bishop,    hear  was  not 


302       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

a  pot  or  Saspan  in  the  Kitchen  but  what  was  as  Black 
with  inside  as  with  out,  Eait  out  with  Rust  and 
Canker.  ...  I  gave  your  Lordship  account  of  the 
Beads  before,  I  only  wish  your  Lordship  Could  Seein 
them  when  I  Did,  they  are  all  aird  and  cleand  as  well 
as  they  Can  be,  but  thay  will  only  be  ould  Rags,  .  .  . 
The  Chimlys  have  not  beein  Sweept  for  Severall  years 
past  till  now.   .   .   ." 

Two  months  later,  the  new  bishop,  by  this  time 
installed  in  the  scene  of  desolation,  where,  as  in  the 
Giaour's  palace — 

"  The  lonely  spider's  thin,  grey  pall 
Waves  slowly  widening  o'er  the  wall," 

wrote  to  his  brother  of  London  to  complain  that  the 
wines  in  the  cellars  of  Rose,  sold  to  him  as  sound, 
proved  in  great  part  "  as  sour  as  berjuice,"  and  closed 
his  epistle  with  the  rather  petty  postscript : — 

"  I  should  have  been  obliged  to  your  Lordship  to 
have  told  me  that  you  would  not  leave  your  Chaplain's 
old  Surplice  in  the  Chapel  here,  that  a  new  one  might 
have  been  provided  against  my  coming.  My  Chaplain 
has  been  forced  to  read  Prayers  without  one  ever  since 
I  came,  and  this  in  the  sight  of  half  the  County,  who 
have  been  to  visit  me." 

Osbaldeston  replied  that  he  was  concerned  at  the 
sourness  of  the  wine,  that  his  agent  should  restore 
the  money,  and  that  having  spent  ^looo,  or  perhaps 
double  that  sum,  at  Rose  Castle  and  elsewhere  in  the 
bishopric,  he  had  not  expected  to  be  called  on  in 
the  rude  manner  he  was  for  dilapidations.  He  added 
a  postscript  that  he  had  found  no  surplices  at  Rose, 
nor  indeed  books,  cushions,  or  other  furniture  proper 
for  the  chapel,  which,  with  part  of  the  communion 
plate  he  left  there,  was  not  of  less  expense  to  him  than 


ROSE   CASTLE  303 

the  sum  of  /^loo,  "and  this  I  judge  the  County  of 
Cumberland  knows,  and  is  visible  to  that  half  of  it 
that  has  visited  you." 

The  spirit  of  the  combatants  now  became  hotter. 
As  the  Bishop  of  London  directed  that  the  claret  in 
the  castle  should  be  distributed  amongst  his  friends 
in  Cumberland  as  a  present,  the  Bishop  of  Carlisle 
wrote  to  accuse  him  of  insinuating  that  the  wine  was 
not  sour,  and  to  say  that  such  a  suspicion  raised  his 
contempt  more  than  his  anger.  He  had  only  taken 
over  the  claret  as  a  favour,  he  said,  and  the  port  had 
to  be  filtered  before  it  could  be  drunk ;  but  was  he  to 
pay  so  expensive  a  compliment  as  to  make  no  demand 
for  dilapidations,  although  they  mounted  to  ;^200  or 
_^300?  To  this  long  letter  the  Bishop  of  London 
laconically  replied  that  the  sum  demanded  in  the 
estimate,  "  tho'  seemingly  demanded,  I  suppose,  is  not 
expected  to  be  paid,  as  it  never  will  be  by,  my  Lord, 
your  most  humble  servant,  Ric.  London." 

Carlisle  spiritedly  replied  that  it  might  be  of  im- 
portance to  both  of  them,  "  but  will  certainly  be  so  to 
your  Lordship,  that  the  Dilapidations  be  settled  soon, 
for  the  House  suffers  by  every  Storm  (a  whole  window 
and  much  glass  beside  being  blown  out  of  the  frames 
before  I  left  Rose),  and  the  Banks  of  the  River 
(allready  in  a  ruinous  condition)  will  receive  much 
more  damage  by  the  winter  Torrents,  and  the  Demand 
on  this  Article  be  proportionately  increased." 

Bishop  Lyttleton  is  said  to  have  repaired  Strick- 
land's Tower  and  to  have  built  a  new  kitchen.  He 
was  succeeded  in  1768  by  Edmund  Law,  in  whom  the 
see  of  Carlisle  obtained  the  ministrations  of  a  great 
light  in  Georgian  theology.  He  was  a  Whig,  a  latitu- 
dinarian,  and  a  disciple  of  Locke,  whose  works  he 
edited  in  1777.     Master  of  Peterhouse,  and  professor 


304       EPISCOPAL    PALACES   OF    YORK 

of  casuistry  at  Cambridge,  the  publication  in  1745 
of  his  Consideration  of  the  State  of  the  World  with  regard 
to  the  Theory  of  Religion  marked  the  start  of  the 
"  Cambridge  School "  of  theology,  of  which  Paley  was 
a  still  greater  light.  It  is  recorded  that  he  almost 
invariably  spent  the  summer  months  at  Rose  Castle, 
as  he  was  fond  of  the  natural  beauty  of  the  place,  and 
"  it  restored  him  to  the  country,  for  which  he  had 
a  great  attachment."  After  his  death,  in  1787,  John 
Douglas  was  for  four  years  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  and  was 
then,  no  doubt  to  his  joy,  translated  to  Salisbury,  so 
much  nearer  to  London.  Douglas  was  by  way  of 
being  a  man  of  letters  about  town.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  "  British  Coffee  House  Club,"  and  of  the 
"Literary  Society,"  to  which  Burke,  Johnson,  and 
Goldsmith  belonged,  that  met  at  the  Turk's  Head 
in  Gerard  Street,  Soho.  He  had  written  in  1750  a 
pamphlet  vindicating  Milton  from  the  charge  of 
plagiarism  made  by  William  Lauder,  a  Scottish  school- 
master ;  and  as  his  advice  afterwards  led  to  the  laying 
of  the  Cock  Lane  Ghost,  he  became  quite  celebrated 
for  his  detective  powers.  Goldsmith  poked  mild  fun 
at  him  in  Retaliation  as — 

"The  scourge  of  impostors,  the  terror  of  quacks." 

He  took  down  the  great  oak  Jacobean  staircase  and 
landing  at  Rose  Castle,  and  replaced  it  by  one  in  fir,  to 
give  the  hall  "a  more  neat  and  modern  appearance." 

After  him,  in  1791,  came  Vernon,  "the  first," 
says  Chancellor  Ferguson,  "of  a  series  of  Bishops  of 
Carlisle,  Vernon  [Vernon  Harcourt],  Goodenough, 
Percy,  Montagu  Villiers,  Waldegrave,  and  Goodwin, 
who  lived  at  Rose  Castle,  made  it  their  home,  bound 
up    with   their  dearest  family   interests,   and  did  not 


ROSE   CASTLE  305 


reckon  it  a  mere  summer  residence."  Vernon  Har- 
court  became  Archbishop  of  York  in  1808,  and  was 
succeeded  by  Dr.  Goodenough,  Dean  of  Rochester, 
who  is  mentioned  in  Mathias's  Pursuits  of  Literature  as 
"  good  Palaemon,  worn  with  classick  toil,"  Besides 
being  a  prominent  preacher,  Dr.  Goodenough  was  a 
distinguished  botanist,  and  his  herbarium,  for  long  in 
Carlisle  Museum,  is  now  at  Kew  Gardens.  "  Traditions 
still  linger,"  writes  Chancellor  Ferguson,  "  of  the  stately 
presence  and  commanding  figure  of  Dr.  Goodenough 
as  he  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  his  cathedral." 
He  was  the  last  Bishop  of  Carlisle  to  wear  a  wig. 

Bishop  Hugh  Percy  succeeded  him  in  1827,  and 
is  largely  responsible  for  the  castle  at  Rose  as  it  now 
stands.  He  called  in  the  pioneer  of  the  Gothic  revival, 
Rickman,  and  rebuilt  much  of  the  palace,  including 
Rainbowe's  chapel,  in  the  Gothic  manner,  spending, 
it  is  said,  /l40,ooo  of  his  own  money  on  the  gardens 
and  outbuildings.  The  terraces  and  rosary  were 
planned  and  set  out  for  him  by  the  noted  horticulturist, 
Sir  Joseph  Paxton.  Bishop  Percy  was  a  bishop  of  the 
Nicolson  type,  in  the  fainter  nineteenth-century  way. 
A  practical  farmer  and  a  judge  of  horses,  he  used  to 
drive  four-in-hand  from  Rose  Castle  to  London  to  take 
his  seat  in  Parliament.  He  was  succeeded  in  1856 
by  Villiers,  in  i860  by  Waldegrave,  and  in  1869 
by  Harvey  Goodwin.  With  these  four  Bishops  of 
Carlisle,  again  to  quote  Chancellor  Ferguson,  "  the 
courtly  Percy,  the  aristocratic  and  unfortunate  Villiers, 
the  saintly  Waldegrave,  and  the  hard-working  and 
energetic  Goodwin,  a  new  regime  came  in  ;  the  dry 
bones  were  made  to  live,  churches  were  built,  livings 
augmented,  abuses  reformed,  religious  and  charitable 
organisations  founded."  Bishop  Goodwin  was  suc- 
ceeded on  his  death  in  1 892  by  John  Wareing  Bardsley, 

u 


3o6       EPISCOPAL   PALACES   OF   YORK 

and    he  in    1905   by  the  present  Lord    Bishop,  John 
William  DIggle. 

All  old  houses  are  haunted  by  memories,  but  Rose 
Castle  possesses  a  visible  revenant  in  the  old  Tudor 
tower  on  the  west  front.  One  Pettenger  hanged  him- 
self in  its  upper  room  ;  and  still,  if  by  midnight  you 
stray  on  the  terrace  beneath,  you  may  discern  the  form 
of  his  ghost  looking  out  of — 

"  The  lattice  that  flaps  when  the  wind  is  shrill," 

and  you  may  see  the  long  cord  hanging  from  his  neck. 
This  hangman's  rope  is  not  an  unfitting  device  for  the 
secular  history  of  Carlisle ;  but  the  more  pleasant  and 
proper  symbol  of  its  ecclesiastical  history  is  the  one  it 
adopted,  the  flower  of  the  Rosa  Mund'i^  the  rose  in  the 
garden  beside  you. 


[The  authorities  for  this  article,  besides  original  sources  and 
local  historians,  are  chiefly :  Chancellor  Ferguson,  History  of 
Carlisle  (Diocesan  Histories) ;  Canon  Venables,  Episcopal 
Palaces  of  England ;  Dictionary  of  National  Biography ;  Rose 
Castle  {Tra?isactions  of  the  Cumberla7id  and  Westmorland 
ArchcBological  Society) ;  Notes  dr'  Queries.^ 


3^U)t 


Abingdon,  Edmund  de,  39 
iEthelwulf,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  243 
Aidan,  Bishop  of  Durham,  102,  106 
Airmin,  William,  Canon  of  York,  251 
Aldhun,  Bishop,  104,  203 
Aldridge,  Robert,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

16,  26,  273,  274,  276 
Alexander  II.,  King  of  Scotland,  244, 

24s 

III.     129 

Alexandra,  Queen  of  England,  97 

All  Hallows-the-Less  (London),  24 

Allerdale,  250 

Allerton,  8-9 

Allertonshire,  198 

Alnwick,  139 

Andrews,    Thomas     (Lord     Mayor), 

179 
Angus,  Earls  of,  239 
Anne,  Queen  of  England,  87 

Boleyn,  Queen  of  Henry  VIII., 

21,  154,  269 

of   Cleves,    Queen   of   Henry 

VIII.,  273 

Appleby,  Thomas  de,  Bishop  of  Car- 
lisle, 257,  258 

Arden,  Thomas,  183 

Armstrongs,  family  of,  239 

Arundel,  Thomas,  Archbishop  of 
York,  53-54 

Aske,  Robert,  271 

Atheling,  Edgar,  107-110 

Athelstan,  106 

Atkinson,  Thomas  (Architect),  93 

Auckland  (Akeland)  : 

Blindervelle,  205 

Borough,  198-199,  230 

Brakesbank,  212 

Bridge,  207,  211,  212,  213 


Auckland,  Burnemilne,  212 

Castle,  149,  151,  154,  156, 

165,187,195,199, 
201-234 

Bakehouse,  210 

Bowling-green,  234 

Brew-house,  211 

Chapel,    211,   213, 

223,  225, 
228,  229, 
230-231, 
232,  233, 
234 

Bek's,    225, 

226-227 

Great,  210 

Little,  210 

Court,  234 

Descriptions        of, 

201-202,  233 

Destruction  of,  2 1 8, 

224 

Gallery,  223,  228, 

233 

Garden,  211,   212, 

213,  225 

Gate  -  house,     202, 

225 

Gates,2l  1,213,  234 

Eastern  Gate,  211, 

212 
North-east    Gate, 

234 
Postern  Gate,  213 

Skirlaw's      Gate, 

234 

South  Gate,  212, 

233 

West  Gate,  230 

Granary,  210 

Grange,  211 


3o8 


INDEX 


Auckland  Castle  Hall,  201,  210,  211, 
212,  226 
. Orchard,  211,  212 

Porch,  221 

Quadrant,  202,  207 

Repair  sand  Altera- 

tions to,  159, 190, 
209,  212-213, 
214-217,  221, 
223,  225,  226, 
227,  228-229, 
233-234 

Rooms  of,  211,212, 

225,  229,  233 

Bishop's    Room, 

210,  211,  213 

Dining-hall,  214, 

216-217,  221, 
222,  223,  229, 

233.  234 

King's      Room, 

211 
Kitchen,  211 

Parlour,  213 

Scullery,  221 

Steward's  Room, 

210 

Sale  of,  180,  224- 

225 

Salt-house,  2 1 1 

"  Scotland,"  221 

ServicesofTenants, 

203-205,  210 

South  Front,  234 

Stable,    210,    211, 

22G 

Surveys,  209-210, 

211 -212,      224- 
225 

Turret,  210,  211 

Church     of    St.     Andrew 

(South  Church),  202 

College,  201-202,  207,  213, 

231 

Court,  Chancellor's,  222 

Halmote,  212 

Fair  of  St.  Cuthbert,  205 

Forest : 

Court   of  the   Free 

Chase,  206 

Great    Hunt,    204, 

205,  212 

Pleas,  206 

Hallmedow,  212 


Auckland  Hospital,  230 

Leyes  Meadow,  212 

Manor,  182,  209,  212 

Market,  201 

Mills,  204,  205,  207 

Moor,  205 

North,  202 

Park,  199,  202,  205,  209, 

212,  214,  223,  228, 
233 

Close,  211 

Enclosure    of,    211, 

212, 234 

Old  Park,  205,  207 

Stock,  228-229 

Survey  of,  225 

Plague  at,  210 

St.  Andrews,  201 

St.  Helens,  201 

Stile  Meadow,  212 

West,  201 

Wood,  199,  206,  207 

Aymery,  Archdeacon  of  Durham,  244 
Ayscough,  Sir  Francis,  73 

B 

Bainbridge,     Christopher,      Arch- 
bishop of  York,  66 
Baker,  Thomas  (Antiquary),  231 
Balcanquhal,  Dean,  178 
Balliol,  family  of,  129,  132 

Edward,  252 

John, 237 

Bamburgh,  102,  103 
Bannockburn,  Battle  of,  133 
Bardsley,  John  Wareing,   Bishop  of 

Carlisle,  305 
Barnard  Castle,  129 
Barnes,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

10, 168-169,  222 
Barnet,  172 
Barrington,  Shute,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

128,  192,  195,  234 
Barrow,  WiUiam,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

265 
Barwick,  Dr.,  12 
Basire,  Dr.  Lsaac,  231 
Bath,  173,  224 
Battersea,  21-22,  61 
Battle  of  the  Standard,  118,  237 
Beaufort,  Cardinal,  23 

Henry,  Duke  of  Somerset, 

25 


INDEX 


309 


Beaumont,  Henry  de,  44-45 

Lewis  de,  Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham, 134 

Beaurepaire,  133 

Bedford,  John,  Duke  of,  23 

BedHngton,  198,  199 

Bek,  Anthony,  Bishop  of  Durham, 
9,  131-132,  153,  201,205,206,207, 
225,  226 

Bell,  Richard,  Prior  of  Durham,  266 

Bennett,  Dr.,  78 

Bentley,  Robert,  149 

Benwell  Tower,  29-30 

Bernard,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  243-244 

Bernard,  St.,  124 

Berwick-on-Tweed,  177,  237,  281, 
287 

Best,  John,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  277, 
278 

Beverley,  51,  52,  71 

Bewcastle,  236 

Bicehill,  Prebend  of,  36 

Bichbourne,  William,  149 

Bigod's  Rebellion,  156,  219,  220 

Binchester,  202 

Bingham,  William,  Bishop  of  Salis- 
bury, 246 

Birtley  Wood,  199 

Bishop's  Burton,  7,  71 

Bishopsgarth  (Wakefield),  31 

Bishop's  Middleham,  9-10,  130 

Bishop's  Monkton,  7 

Bishops'  War,  the,  177,  281,  286 

Bishop's  Wilton,  7 

Bishopthorpe  Palace,  32-100 

Additions    and 

Repairs  to,43, 
51,52,62,84, 
85,88-89,91, 
92,  93-95. 
97-99 

Chapel,  86,  88, 

92,  94,  98 
Garden,  94,  96 

Hall,  86 

Library,  94,  98 

Robbery  at,  53 

Sale  of,  83-84 

■     Tapestry,  91 

Truce  at,  44-45 

Black  Death,  135 

Blackburne,  Lancelot,  Archbishop  of 

York,  89-90 
Blakiston,  Mistress,  179,  180 


Blindervelle  (Auckland),  205 

Blyth  (Northumberland),  61 

"Bokonky,  Dr.,"  17S 

Boldon  Book,  10,  203,  212 

Boleyn.     See  Anne  Boleyn 

Bolingbroke  Castle,  16 

Boniface,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 

246 
Booth,  Laurence,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

21, 140-142,  207, 

213 

Archbishop  of  York, 

61 

William,  Archbishop  of  York, 

57-58 
Bovill,  Sewal  de,  Archbishop  of  York, 

38-39 
Bowes,  Andrew,  30 
Bowet,  Henry,  Archbishop  of  York, 

2,  6,  56-57 
Bowmer,  Sir  Ralph,  220 
Bowys,  George,  216 
Bradford,  Samuel,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

296 
Brak',  William,  207 
Bramley  Grange  Farm,  27 
Brancepeth  Castle,  166,  167 
Branksome  Castle,  241 
Brereton,  Sir  William,  223,  225 

George,  229 

Bridge  Court  (Battersea),  21 
Bridgeman,  Henry,  Bishop  of  Sodor 

and  Man,  12 
Broughton  House,  29 
Bruce,  David.     See  David  H. 

Robert.     See  Robert  Bruce 

Buccleuch,  the  bold,  240,  241 

Burgh-upon-Sands,  245 

Burgh,  Hubert  de,  Earl  of  Kent,  17 

Burgundy,  Duchess  of,  143 

Burke,  Edmund,  94 

Burnett,  Gilbert,  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 

285 
Bury,  Richard  de,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

207,  208,  210 
Butler,  Joseph,   Bishop   of  Durham, 

90,  187,  188,  200 


Caldewstones  (Carlisle),  253 
Caldicolesike,  36 
Cambridge,  62 


3IO 


INDEX 


Canute,  King,  io6,  203 
Cappoch  (Priest),  298-299 
Carham,  Battle  at,  106 
Carileph,  William  of,  Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham, 115-116,  130,  207 
Carisbrook  Castle,  287 
Carlisle,  236,  242,  291 

Bishopric,  15-17,  25-27,  236 

Canons   of,    244,  245,    248, 

257 

Capture  of,  in  12 16,  244 

Castle,  236,  240,  241 

Cathedral,  264,  2S7,  293 

Chapter  Library,  293 

Civil  War  at,  286,  287.  288 

Deanery,  293 

Devastation  of,  250 

Earl  of.     See  Harcla 

Earldom  of,  236,  243 

Gaol,  298 

Grammar  School,  293 

Hospital  of  St.  Nicholas,  253 

Mary   Queen    of  Scots    at, 

278 

Museum,  305 

Pretender  at,  in  1745,  296, 

297 

Prior  of,  244,  252 

Siege  of,  n  73-74,  244 

Tower  of,  251 

Carlisle  Place  (London),  25-27 
Carnabies,  family  of,  239 
Cartwright,     Thomas,      Bishop      of 

Chester,  14-15 
Catherine  Howard,  Queen  of  Henry 

VHL,  3 
Cawood  Castle,  66,  81,  93 

During  the  Civil  War, 

83 

Gate-house,  57 

Great  Hall,  57 

History  of,  2-4 

Repairs  to,  52 

Robbery  at,  53 

Wolsey  at,  69 

Cecil,  Sir  William,  165,  222,  262 
Champne,  Robert,  159 

Chandler,   Edward,  Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham, 187-188,  200 
Charles  I.,  King  of  England,  246,  280, 
281,  283,  284,  286,  2S7 

at  Auckland,  223,  224 

at  Bishopthorpe,  83 

at  Chester,  14 


Charles  I.  at  Durham,  175,  177,  179 

n.,  182 

Chauncy  (Chause),  Robert  de,  Bishop 

of  Carlisle,  247-248,  252 
Cheese,  Mr.,  187 
Chelsea  College,  284 
Chester,  14,  199 

Abbey,  13-14 

Deanery,  II 

Episcopal  Residence  at,  13 

Ward,  198 

Chester-le-Street,  103,  104 
Chigwell,  82 
Chiswick,  26 
Cholmley,  Major,  288 
Churchdown,  7 
Churchill,  Lord,  15 

Clare,  Gilbert  de.  Earl  of  Gloucester 

and  Hertford,  42 
Clement  V.,  Pope,  43 

VL  47,  208 

Clerk,  Rosemary,  297 
Clitiford,  Sir  Thomas,  218 
Clinton,  Edward,  Lord,  16 

Close,  Nicholas,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

265 
Cnaresburgh.     See  Knaresborough 
Coatham,  199 
Cock  Lane  Ghost,  304 
Coke,  family  of,  17 

Sir  John,  17 

Coldharbour,  24 

Comine,   Robert,    Earl  of  Northum- 

bria,  108 
Conway,  Viscount,  228 
Cook,  Monk,  205 
Corbridge,  Archbishop,  5,  42 
Cosin,  John,  Bishop  of  Durham,  175, 

182-184,    187,    192,  225,  226-231, 

233 
Council  of  the  North,  157-158,  170, 

221 
Council  of  Vienne,  43 
Court  of  High  Commission,  222-223, 

279 
Couton,  de,  Prior  of  Durham,  134 
Cranborne,  Lord,  79 
Cranmer,    Thomas,    Archbishop    of 

Canterbury,  269,  274 
Crew,    Lord    Nathaniel,    Bishop    of 

Durham,    128,   184-186,  187,  20O, 

231-232 
Crigan,   Claudius,   Bishop  of  Sodor 

and  Man,  13 


INDEX 


311 


Cromwell,  Oliver,  180,  2S5,  289 

Thomas,  22,  26,  68,  154, 

218, 271 
Croyland,  114 
Culpeper,  Thomas,  3 
Cumberland,  105,  250,  253,  257 

William,  Duke  of,  297, 

298 
Cumin,  William,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

I18-121 
Cuthbert,    St.,    102,    103,    104,   109, 

III,  113,  114,  115,  156 

D 

Dacre,  Lord,  267,  277 

Philip,  267 

Dalston,  242,  2S9,  291 
Darcy,  Lord,  145-146,  156 
Darlington,  130,  146,  198,  199,  201 
David  L,  King  of  Scotland,  117-1 19, 

237.243 
n.        135,  209, 

253 

Dawes,  Sir  William,  Archbishop  of 
York,  88-89 

Day  House,  27 

Debatable  Land,  240 

Declaration  of  Indulgence,  185-186, 
231-232 

Deeside  House,  15 

Delacourt.     See  Dillycot 

Deor  Street,  202 

Diggle,  John  William,  Bishop  of  Car- 
lisle, 306 

Dillycot  (Delacourt),  Jane,  169 

Dolben,  John,  Archbishop  of  York, 
85-86 

Dolfin,  236 

Douai,  169 

Douglas,  family  of,  238-239,  257 

James,  2 

Lord  James,  250 

John,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  304 

Drummond,  Robert  Hay,  Archbishop 

of  York,  92-93 
Dryden,  John  (Poet),  85 
Dudley,  Guildford,  163 

John,  Duke  of  Northumber- 

land, 161,  162,  163 
Dunbar,  Battle  of,  179-180 
Duncombe,  William,  90 
Dunholm  (Durham),  104 
Dupplin  Moor,  Battle  of,  252 


Durham  Abbey,  219 

Archdeacon  of,  10 

Assizes  at,  195 

Bishopric : 

Origin  of,  126 

Separation  of,  162 

Survey    of,    136- 

137,  226 

Bridge,  116 

Framwellgate,     166, 

178 

Bridewell,  193 

Castle,  8,  101-200 

Archives  at,  160 

Barbican,  159 

Buttresses,  183 

Castle  ward,  133 

Chantry,  158 

Chapel,  123, 151,158, 

159,  169,  184 

Description  of,  121- 

124, 176, 187, 194 

Destruction  of,  183 

Doorway  (Pudsey's), 

19s 

Dungeons,  123 

Fire  at,  124-125 

Foundation  of,   loi, 

107,  113 

Gallery,  128,  183 

•       Tunstall's, 

159,  19s 

Gaol,  137,  141,  167- 

168, 169,  170,  191- 
194 

Gate-house,  159,183, 

195 

Gates,  123 

North    Gate,   137, 

141,  191,  192 

Gateway,     127-12S, 

159,  1S5,  194 

Hall,  137,  148,   174, 

183,190,196, 
200 

Bek's,  132, 145 

Constable's, 

129, 136 

Hatfield,  199 

Pudsey's,  128, 

136,  148 

Keep,  122-123,  136, 

148,  175,  183,  188, 
191,  200 


312 


INDEX 


Durham  Castle  Library,  187 

Porch,  183 

Pulpits,  145 

Repairs  to,  116, 126- 

127,  135-136,  141, 
143>  14s,  159-160, 
169, 174-175,  182- 
184,  187,  188-189, 
195,  228 

■    Rooms  : 

Breakfast  -  room, 

190 

Conmion     Room, 

188 

Dining-room,  189 

Kitchen,  145 

Senior        Judge's 

Apartments,  189 

Sale  of,  179 

Siege  of,  115,  116 

Staircase,  184,  187 

Tapestry,  189,  194 

Tower,  145,  190-191 

Treasury,  136 

Tunstall's  Turret,  184 

Water-supply,  159- 

160,  183 

Well,  160 

Cathedral,     116,    167,    176, 

180 

Church,  the  White,  105 

City,  170,  173,  176,  190,  198, 

230 

College,  24,  180-182,  220 

Hospital,  230 

Mint,  124,  137,  152 

Palace  Green,  123,  137,  167 

Palatinate : 

Abolition  of  Liber- 

ties, 157,  162 

Judicial    Adminis- 

tration of,  157- 
158,  162,  176, 
198 ;  Chancery, 
137.  176,  198, 
199 ;  Court  of 
Pleas,  176,  198, 
199 ;  Ecclesiasti- 
cal Court,  169  ; 
Exchequer,    136- 

137,      139.      176, 
183  ;       Halmote 
Courts,  198 
Muniments,  160 


Durham  Palatinate,  Officers  of,  197, 
198,  199 

Revenues,  168 

Plague  at,  177 

Prior  of,  146,  158,  164,  206, 

220 

Priory  of,  I15-I16,  130,  155, 

205,  209 

Sack  of,  119 

Sadler  Street,  194 

Treaty  of,  138 

University,  180-182,190,191, 

197)  199,  200,  232 
Durham  House  (London),  23,  160, 

163, 175 
Durham  Household  Book,  220 
Durham  Place,  20 


E 


Easington  Ward,  198 
Ecclesiastical  Commission,  197 
Edgar  Atheling,  108,  109 
Edinburgh,  252,  253 
Edward  I.,  King  of  England,  2,  237 

at  Bishopthorpe,  40 

at  Durham,  132 

at  Linstock,  243 

at  Rose,  243 

at  Westminster,  18 

n..  King   of   England,    248, 

250,  251 

at  Bishopthorpe,  43,  44- 

45 
III.,  King  of  England,  46,  252, 

254.  257 

at  Auckland,  208 

at  Durham,  134 

IV.,  King  of  England,  60, 141- 

142 

VL,  King  of  England,   160, 

163, 268 

at  Bishopthorpe,  97 

at  Durham  Place,  24 

Egerton,  John,   Bishop  of  Durham, 

190-191,  234 
Eleanor,  Queen  of  Henry  HL,  247 
Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  75,  76, 

165,  168,  241,  262,  268, 

276, 279 

Coldharbour  granted  to, 

24 

Horncastle  leased  to,  16 


INDEX 


313 


Elizabeth      Woodville,     Queen      of 
Edward  IV.,  59,  63-64 

of  York,    Queen   of   Henry 

VII.,  146 
Elstan,  the  "  dreng,"  205 
Elvet  Bridge,  193 
Erasmus,  217,  273 
Erfast,  Richard,  son  of,  32 
Ethelwine,  Bishop,  1 1 1 
Ethred,  Earl,  203 
Eure,  Sir  William,  153 
Evenwood,  199 
Everdon,    Sylvester    de.    Bishop    of 

Carhsle,  246-247,  281 


Fair  Maid  of  Kent,  52 

Fairfax,  Lord,  3 

Ferguson,  Chancellor,  243-244,  254, 

272,  293,  294 
Feversham,  Lord,  14,  15 
Finchale,  124,  155 
Fire  of  London,  85 
Fisher,  the  Jesuit,  281 
FitzHugh,  Lord,  55 
Fiambard,  Bishop  of  Durham,   116- 

117.  123 
Fleming,  Sir  Daniel,  296 

Sir  George,  Bishop  of  Car- 
lisle, 296 
Flodden,  Battle  of,  149,  214,  266 
FoUiot,  Rev.  Gilbert,  296 
Fox,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Durham,  132, 
136,    143-148,    1 88, 
207,  214 
Bishop  of  Winchester, 

153 

George,  181-182 

Frankland,  146 

Wood,  199 

Franklyn,  William,  151-153 

Frazer,  James,  Bishop  of  Manchester, 

29 
Frewen,    Accepted,    Archbishop    of 

York,  84 
Fulham,  Palace  of,  35 
Fuller,  Thomas,  288 
Fulthorpe,  Sir  William,  55 


Gascoigne,  Chief  Justice,  55 
Gateshead,  115,  198 


Gaundelesse  (Gaunless,    Gaundeles), 

River,  201,  211 
George  I.,  89 
Gibson,  John, 222 
Giffard,  Walter,  Archbishop  of  York, 

2,  8,  40 
Gilbert,  John,  Archbishop  of  York, 

92 
Gilpin,  Bernard,  Rector  of  Houghton- 
le-Spring,  277 
Dr.  Richard,  Rector  of  Grey- 
stoke,  289 
Gladstone,  Mr.  Murray,  29 
Glenny,  William,  149 
Gloucester,  Abbot  of,  7 

Earl  of.     See  Clare 

Humphrey,  Duke  of,  23 

Godric,  St.,  124 

Godvkfin,  Francis,  Bishop  of  Llandaff, 
262,  263 

Goldsmith,  Oliver,  304 

Goodenough,  Samuel,  Bishop  of  Car- 
lisle, 304,  305 

Goodwin,  Harvey,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

304,  305 
Gordon,  Lady  Catherine,  143 
Gospatric,  Earl  of  Northumbria,  112 
Graeme,  family  of,  239,  240 
Graham,  John,  Bishop  of  Chester,  15 
Granville,  Denis,  Dean,  231-232 
Gray,  Hawise  de,  33 

John  de,  33 

Walter,  Archbishop  of  York, 2, 

5.  7,8,  17,33-38, 
Greenfield    (Grenfeud),  William   de. 

Archbishop  of  York,  5,  42-43 
Grey,  Dr.,  1S5,  186 

Lady  Jane,  163 

Greystanes,  Robert  de,  205,  206 
Grindal,  Edmund,  Bishop  of  London, 

277-278,  279 

ArchbishopofYork, 

75-76 


Gualo,  244 
Guisnes,  60 


H 


Haddington,  252 

Halidon  Hill,  Battle  of,  134,  252 

Hall,  family  of,  239 

Halton.John,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  243, 

249-251,  253 
Hamildon  Hill,  Battle  of,  258 
Hampton  Court  Conference,  280 


314 


INDEX 


Harcia,  Andrew  de,  Earl  of  Carlisle, 

251 
Harcourt,  Lady  Anne,  95 

Edward     Vernon,     Arch- 
bishop of  York,  28,  94- 

95,  304-305 

Hardy,  Matthew,  27 

Harington,  Sir  John,  80 

Harrity  Hill  {"  Hairibee"),  240,  297, 
300 

Harsnett,  Samuel,  Archbishop  of 
York,  82 

Hartlepool,  155,  168 

Haselrig,  Sir  Arthur,  179,  180,  182, 
224,  225,  226,  227,  228,  229,  231 

Hatfield,  Thomas  of,  Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham, 23,  132.  13S-136,  209,  211, 
212 

Hawden  Stank,  265 

Hayward,  Sir  John,  262 

Heath,  Nicholas,  Archbishop  of  York, 
7>  8,  21,  73 

Heaton  Norris,  28 

Hemsworth  Grammar  School,  73 

Henry  I.,  King  of  England,  236-237 

n.,  King  of  England,  8,  125, 

237,  244 

HI.,  King  of  England,  2,  16, 

129,  242,  245,  246 

IV.,   King  of  England,  258, 

259,  262 

v.,  King  of  England,  258 

VI.,  King  of  England,  23,  60, 

139-140 

VII.,   King  of  England,  65, 

143,  146,  150 

VIII.,  King  of  England,  11, 

13,  66,70-71,  72,  157, 
217,218,  221,  261,  268, 
269-270,  271,  273 

at  Cawood,  3 

at  York  Place,  19 

Durham  House  acquired 

by,  24 

Heron,  family  of,  239 

Herring,  Thomas,  Archbishop  of 
York,  90-91 

Hertford,  Earl  of.     See  Clare 

Heveringham  (Heveningham),  Colo- 
nel, 286  287,  288-289 

Hexgrave  (near  Southwell),  85 

Hexham,  42 

Hexhamshire,  267-268 

Higden,  Dr. ,  263 


Highgate,  172 

Hildebrand,  Pope,  116 

Hildesley,    Mark,    Bishop    of  Sodor 

and  Man,  13 
Hodgkin,  Dr.,  240 
Holgate,  Robert,  Archbishop  of  York, 

22,  72-73 
Holland,  Sir  John,  52 
Holmby  House,  179 
Holme  Cultram,  247,  250,  271 
Holy  Isle.     See  Lindisfarne 
Holyrood,  146 
Home,  family  of,  239 
Horncastle,  15   16,  243,  250 

John  de,  254 

Home,  Dean  of  Durham,  161 

Hotham,  Captain,  3 

Hoveden,  9 

Howard,  Thomas,  Duke  of  Norfolk, 

20,  156, 157,  167 
Howden,  155 
Howdenshire,  198 
Howley,    William,     Archbishop    of 

Canterbury,  197 
Howson,  John,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

183 
Hugh,  Abbot  of  Beauheu,  245 

Bishop  of  Carlisle,  242 

Hulton,     Matthew,    Archbishop     of 
York,  79-81, 

91 
Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham, 222 
Hyde,  Chancellor,  12 


Inglewood,  Forest  of,  242,  250 
Irton  (Ireton),  Ralph  de.  Bishop  of 

Carlisle,  243,  248 
Isabella,  Queen  of  Edward  II.,  2,  45 


Jacquemayne,  Catherine,  165 
James  I.,  King  of  England,  172,  224, 
235, 241,  280 

at  Bishopthorpe,  81 

at  Durham,  1 70- 1 7 1, 173 

Horncastle  leased  to,  16 

"York    House"    trans- 

ferred to,  21 


INDEX 


315 


James  II.,  King  of  England,  14-15 

I.,  King    of   Scotland,     138. 

See  also  Stuart 

IV.,  King   of  Scotland,  143, 

146,  149,  266 

William,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

172-173,  224 
Jarrow,  Cell  at,  155 
Jeffreys,  Judge,  185 
Jervaulx,  Abbot  of,  220 
John,   King   of   England,    129,    208, 

244 
Johnstone,  family  of,  235,  239 
Juxon,  William,  Bishop  of  London, 

283 

K 

Katharine  of  Aragon,  Queen  of 

Henry  VIII.,  70  71,  268,  269 
Keble,  Canon,  37 
Keene,  Edmund,  Bishop  of  Chester, 

15 
Kellawe  (Kellewe),  Richard,  Bishop 

of  Durham,  9-10,  130-131,  208 
Kemp,  John,  Archbishop  of  York,  18 
Kempe,  Cardinal,  3,  4 

Mr.,  98 

Mr.  C.  E.,  57 

Kennett,  White,  Bishop  of  Peter- 
borough, 264 

Ker,  Sir  Robert,  79 

Kerr,  family  of,  239 

Kerr,  Lanse,  267 

Kildesby,  William  de,  47 

Kingscott,  John,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 
265 

Kingston,  Sir  William,  272 

"  Kinmont  Willie,"  240 

Kirkby,  John  de,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 
252-253,  254,  256,  295 

Kirkmichael,  10-12 

Knaresborough,  Prebend  of,  36 

ICnights  Templars,  43 

Kyte  (Kite),  John,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 
266-267,  272 


Lambeth,  26-27 

Lamplugh,   Thomas,   Archbishop   of 

York,  86 
Lancaster,  250 
Lanchester,  199 


Laneham,  5 

Lanercost     Priory,    244,    245,    248, 

253 
Lang,  Dr.  Cosmo  Gordon,  Archbishop 

of  York,  99 
Langdale,  Sir  Marmaduke,  287,  288 
Langley,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Durham, 
137-138 

Cardinal,  9,  212 

Langstaffe,  John,  229 
Langton,  Simon  de,  34 
Latimer,  Lord,  219,  220 

Laud,  William,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury,  83,  84,    175, 
280,  28 1,  283 
Bishop  of  London,  176 
Bishop  of  St.  David's, 
24 
Laurence  the  Monk,   Prior  of  Dur- 
ham, 117,  120-122,  124-125 
Law,   Edmund,   Bishop   of  Carlisle, 

303-304 
Layton,  155 
Lee,  Edward,  Archbishop  of  York, 

4,  7,  70-71 
James  Prince,  Bishop  of  Man- 
chester, 28 
Legh,  Dr.  Thomas,  218-219 
Leicester  Abbey,  70 
Leland,  John,  9,  202,  207,  273 
Leslie,  General,  286 
Liege  (Liittich),  lii 
Lightfoot,  Joseph  Barber,  Bishop  of 

Durham,  234 
Lilburne,  family  of,  182 
Lincoln  College  (Oxford),  62 
Lindisfarne,  102,  106 
Linlithgow,  252 
Linstock,  242,  248,  289 
Lisle,  Lady,  272 

Lord,  272 

Liverpool,  27,  29 

Loch  wood  Tower,  235 

London  Bridge,  251 

Long  Newton,  232 

Longchamps,  William,  9 

Longley,  Charles,  Archbishop  of  York, 

96 
Louvain,  169 
Lucy,  Alexander  de,  244 
Ludham,  Godfrey  de,  Archbishop  of 
York,  39 

Sir  Walter  de,  39 

Lumley,  George,  219 


3'6 


INDEX 


Lumley,  Maimaduke,  Bishop  of  Car- 
lisle, 265 

Lythegrenes,  John  de,  41 

Lyttleton,  Charles,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 
300-304 


M 


Macdonald,  Captain,  297 
Machell,   Thomas,  Vicar   of  Kirkby 

Thore,  293 
Maclagan,    William   D. ,   Archbishop 

of  York,  9S 
Magee,   William   C,   Archbishop   of 

York,  97-98 
Maid  of  Norway,  the,  248 
Makerell,  Luce,  205 
Malcolm  III.,  King  of  Scotland,  107, 
116 

IV.,  King  of  Scotland,  237 

Malet,  Robert,  32 
Manchester,  27,  28-29 
Mansfield,  Lord,  94 

Margaret,   Queen  of  Edward   I.,    2, 

243 

Queen  of  Henry  VI.,  140- 

141 

Tudor,    Princess.    9,    144, 

146-148 
Markham,  William,    Archbishop    of 

York,  94 
Mary,  Queen,  24,  164,  26S 

Grants  by,  4,  7,  21 

of  Modena,  Queen  of  James  II., 

184-1S5 

Queen  of  Scots.  167,  278 

Masham,  Prebend  of,  58 

Mason,  George,  Bishop  of  Sodor  and 

Man,  12 
Matthew,  Mrs..  S0-81,  224 

Toby,  Archbishop  of  York, 

21,  S0-81 

Bishop   of  Durham, 

10,  171,  175,  222, 

223,  224 
Mauclerk,  Walter,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

16,  17,  242,  245-246,  247 
Maud,  Empress.  117-118,  119,  237 
Mauldeth  Hall  (Heaton  Norris),  -^S 
Maxwell,  family  of,  239 
Melbourne   (Derbyshire),   15-16,   17, 

Melton,   William  de,  Archbishop  of 
York,  43-47,  49 


Merks,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

246-247,   258,   259-261,   262-264, 

2S2 
Merrick,  John,  Bishop  of  Sodor  and 

Man,  11-12 
Meye  (May),  John,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

272,  279 
Mickleton,  Mr.  (Antiquary),  183 
Middleham,  60,  199 
Midrigge,  Peter  de,  210 
Milburne,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

281 
Miller,  Mr.  Sanderson,  188-189 
Monmouth,  James,  Duke  of,  184 
Monteigne,    George.   Archbishop    of 

York, 81-82 
Moor  Park,  60 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  22,  274 
Morpeth,  192 

Morton,   Dr.,    Prebendary   of   Dur- 
ham, 185,  186 

Thomas,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

10,  24-25,   176-178,   183, 
223,  227,  228 
Mount  Grace,  Prior  of,  158 
Mundeville,  199 
Munster,  Duchess  of,  89 
Murdac,  Henry,  Archbishop  of  York,  6 
Murray,    George,    Bishop    of    Sodor 

and  Man,  13 
Musgrave,  Sir  Philip,  287-288 
Myton,  Battle  of,  44 


N 
Neasham,  155 

Neild,  Mr.  (Philanthropist),  192-193 
Neile,  Richard,  Archbishop  of  York, 
82-83 

Bishop   of   Durham, 

24,  174,  176,   190, 
200,  223 

Sir  Paul,  S3 

William  (Mathematician),  83 

Nesfield,  Mr.  (Artist),  96 

Neville,  family  of,  129,  132,  168,  239 

Alexander,     Archbishop     of 

York,  2,  51-53.  138-139 

Charles,   Earl   of  Westmor- 

land, 166,  277 

Edward,  Sir,  19 

George,  Archbishop  of  York, 

58-61 

Ralph,  Baron,  134 


INDEX 


317 


Neville,  Richard,   Earl  of  Warwick, 

58,  59,  60 
Neville's  Cross,  Battle  of,  48,  134,  209 
Newark,    Henry   dc,  Archljishop   of 

York,  41 
Newburn,  Ford  of,  177-178 
Newcastle,  149,  153,  219 

Episcopal    Residence    at, 

27,  29-30,  243,  251 

Erection  of  See  at,  161- 

162 

Gaol,  192 

Siege  of,  286 

Tower  of,  251 

Newton,  Mrs.,  89 

Nicholas,  Bishop  of  Sodor  and  Man, 

10   II 
Nicolson,  William,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

293-295 
Nithsdale,  252 

Norfolk,  Duke  of.     See  Howard 
Norham  Castle,   126,  143,  148,  149- 

150,  156,  214-215 
Norman,  Anthony,  72 
Northallerton,  8-9,  126,  146 
Northampton,  Treaty  of,  251-252 
Northley  Fields,  27 
Northman,  Earl,  203 
Northumberland,  Duke  of    See  Dud- 
ley 

Earl  of.    See  Percy, 

Uchtred 

Earls  of,  103 

Raid  of,  153 

Northumbria,  102-103,  106,  108-110, 

115,  125 

Earl   of.     See  Comine, 

Gospatric,  Waltheof 
Norwich  House,  21 
Nostell,  Prior  of,  243 
Nottingham,  2 

O 

OCLE,  Lord,  267 

Odington,  7 

Ogle,  135 

Oglethorpe,  Owen,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 
276-277 

Old  Elvet,  194 

Old  Malton,  73 

Orrey's  Tower  (Kirkmichacl),  11 

Osbaldeston,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Car- 
lisle, 300,  301,  302,  303 

Oswald,  King,  102.  106 


Otley,  5,  57 

Otterbourne,  Battle  of,  257,  258 

Oxenhyrde,  John,  21 

Mrs.,  22 

Oxford,  Lady,  187 
Lincoln  College,  62 


Pacification  of  Berwick,  177 

Paris,  Matthew,  246 

Parker,     Matthew,     Archbishop     of 

Canterbury,  76 
Parr,  Dr.,  284 
Paulinus  of  Leeds,  244 
Paxton,  Sir  Joseph,  305 
Peacock,  Thomas  Love,  294 
Pease,  Mr.  J.  W.,  30 
Pele  Towers,  241,  254-256 
Penny,  John,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  266 
Penreth,  John  de,  207 
Penrith,  253,  264,  288 
Percy,  family  of,  239,  257,  258 

Henry,  239 

Hugh,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  304, 

.305 

Sir  Ingram,  155 

Thomas,  Earl  of  Northumber- 
land, 166,  167 

William,    Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

265 

Sir  William,  267 

Peterborough,  Lady,  284 

Cathedral,  226 

Petrarch,  208 
Pette,  Phineas,  177 
Philip  IV.  of  France,  237 
PhilippaofHainault,  Queen  of  Edward 

HI.,  46,  48,  134,  208 
Philips,  John,  Bishop  of  Sodor  and 

Man,  12 
Phillpotts,  Dr.,  196 
Piers,  John,  Archbishop  of  York,  78 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  155,  219,  271 
Pilkington.  James,    Bishop   of  Dur- 
ham, 164-169 
Plantagenet,  Geoffrey,  34 
Pontefract  Castle,  55 
Potter,  Amy,  282 

Barnaby,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

281,  282 

Grace,  282 

Powys,  Horace,  Bishop  of  Sodor  and 
Man,  13 


3i8 


INDEX 


Preston,  288 

Pudsey   (Puiset),    Hugh,    Bishop    of 
Durham,  9,  124-129,  188,  203,  205 
Puiset.    See  Pudsey 


R 


Raby  Castle,  129 

Rainbowe,  Edward,  Bishop  of  Car- 
lisle, 290-292,  293 

Rakett,  John,  149 

Ralph  the  Crafty,  212 

Ravensworth,  Lord,  195-196 

Red  Hills,  209 

Rede,  family  of,  239 

Reed,   Robert,  Bishop  of  Dromore, 
258 

Reformation,  the,  217,  268-272,  278- 
279 

Reginald  the  Monk,  123-124,  125 

Rhodes.  Ralph  de,  16 

Richard  I.,  King  of  England,   126- 
127 

II.,   King  of  England,   52, 

246,  247,  257,  259,  260, 
262,  264 

III.,  King  of  England,  64, 

142, 213 

Son  of  Erfast,  32 

the  Engineer,  128,  188 

"  Richard  II."  (Play),  260-263 

Rickman,  Mr.  (Architect),  305 

Ridley,  Dr.,  218 

Rinaldo  de  Modena,  66 

Ripon,  6-7,  27-28,  33,  51,  73,  103, 
105,  180 

Rising  of  the  Earls,  165-168 

Rising  of  the  North,  278 

Robert    Bruce,    133,   208,   250-251, 
252 

III.,  King  of  Scotland,  25  8 

the  Falconer,  205 

Robinson,  Plenry,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 
261,  279 

Rockingham,  Robert  of,  22 

Roger,  Archbishop  of  York,  i,  33 

Romanus  (Le  Romeyn),  John,  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  41 

Rose,  Geoffrey  de  la,  242 

Rose  Castle,  15,  235-306 

Alterations  and  Addi- 
tions to,  289, 290,  291, 
293.  303.  305 


Rose  Castle  Brew-house,  301 

Burning  of,  250,  266 

Chapel,    256,    290-291, 

305 

Cockpit,  294 

Courtyard,  256,  288 

Description  of,  256-257, 

301-302 

Fishponds,  250 

Foundation  of,  242,  252, 

254 

Gallery,  272 

Garden,  258,  305 

—    Gate-house,  256 

Gateway,  259 

Hall,  256 

— —    Moat,  256 

Paradise  Walk,  255 

Park,  250 

Pigeon-cote,  293 

Portcullis,  256 

Quadrangle,  272 

Rooms,  272 

Council  Cham- 
ber, 256 

Dining  -  room, 

272 
Kitchen,     256, 

303 
Siege  of,  287,  288 

Stables,  293 

Staircase,  304 

Towers,  287,  293 

Bell      Tower, 

266,  293 

Constable's 

Tower,     256, 

293 

Strickland's 

Tower,  235, 
254,255.256, 
264,  303 

Tudor   Tower, 

272,  306 

Manor  of,  242,  253,  258,  289 

Ross,  John,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,   16, 

251-252 
Rotheram    (Scot),    Thomas,     Arch- 
bishop of  York,  4, 61-65 

College  of  Jesus  at,  62 

Rotherfield,  William   de,   Bishop  of 

Carlisle,  248 
Rufus,  Geoft'rey,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

1 17,  118,  120-122 


INDEX 


319 


Rushen,  Abbey  of,  1 1 

Russell,  Lord,  26 

Ruthall,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

148-151,  214-216 
Ryle,  John  C,  Bishop  of  Liverpool, 

29 


Sadberge,   Wapentake  and  Manor, 

127,  199 
Sancroft,  William,  183,  227 
Sandys,  Edwin,  Archbishop  of  York, 

4.  5'  76-77 

Sir  Samuel,  5 

Sarke  Water,  140 

Savage,  Thomas,  Archbishop  of  York, 

3.  65-66 
Saxon  Chronicle,  the,  236 
Schmalkaldic  League,  270 
Sclavonia,  Archbishop  of,  244 
Scot,  Thomas.     See  Rotheram 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  195-196,  297 
Scott,  family  of,  239,  240 
Scroby,  65,  66,  69 
Scrooby  (Nottingham),  5 
Scroop.     See  Scrope 
Scrope,  Lord,  278 

Scrope   (Scroop),    Richard  le,  Arch- 
bishop of  York, 
54-56 
Bishop    of   Car- 
lisle, 265 
Sedgefield,  IS3  . 
Senhouse,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 
281 

(Sever),  William,  Bishop  of 

Carlisle,  147,  229,  266 

Sever.     See  Senhouse 

Seymour,  Edward,  Duke  of  Somer- 
set, 160,  274-275 

William,  171,  172 

Shaftoe,  family  of,  29-30 

Sharp,  John,  Archbishop  of  York,  62, 
84,  87-88 

Dr.  Thomas,  87 

Shelley,  Sir  William,  67 

Sherburn,  6,  51 

Sherwood,  John,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

142-143,  213-214 
Shipton  Moor,  Battle  of,  55 
Shrewsbury,  251 

Simon,  Bishop  of  Sodor  and  Man,  1 1 
Skerlaw.     See  Skirlaw 


Skidby,  Manor  of,  7 1 

Skirlaw    (Skerlaw),    Walter,    Bishop 

of  Durham,  Q,  136-137,  202,  213, 

234  . 
Smalbridge,  Bishop,  88 
Smart,  Peter,  175 
Smith,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

292-293 
Snowden,  Robert,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

279 
Sodor  and  Man,  See  of,  10 
Solway  Moss,  Battle  of,  159 
Somerset,   Dukes   of.    See  Beaufort, 

Seymour 
Southwark,  21 
Southwell,  4,  33,  57,  58,61,  62,  71, 

77 

Spenser,  Edmund  (Poet),  75 

St.  Albans,  Abbot  of,  262 

St.  Andrews,  Auckland.     See  Auck- 
land 

St.  Andrewthorpe  (Bishopthorpe),  32 

St.  Barbe,  William  of.  Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham, 1 19-124 

St.  Dunstan's  Church  (London),  85 

St.   Helens,    Auckland.      See   Auck- 
land 

St.  John,  Chief  Justice  Oliver,  226 

Stafford,  Sir  Ralph,  52 

Stanhope,  199,  204 

Stanley,  Lord,  21 

Stanwix,  242 

Stapleton,  Miles,  183,  227,  228,  230 
Sir  Robert,  77 

Stephen,  King  of  England,  117-118, 

243 
Sterne,  Richard,  Archbishop  of  York, 
84-85 

Bishop    of    Carlisle, 

289,  290 
Stockton,    10,    130,    154,    178,    198, 

199 
Story,   Edward,  Bishop   of  Carlisle, 

265-266 
Strafford,  Earl  of.     See  Wentworth 
"  Strangwishe,  Sir  James,"  219 
Strangways,  Thomas,  216,  217 
Stratford,  Dr.  William,  89 
Strathmore,  Countess  of,  30 
Strickland,  William,  Bishop  of  Car- 
lisle, 258,  264 
Stuart,  Arabella,  171,  172,  224 

Charles  Edward,  90,  143,  296. 

297 


;20 


INDEX 


Stuart,    James,     Prince     (afterwards 
James  I.  of  Scotland),  258 
James,  Duke  of  York  (after- 
wards James   11.  of  Eng- 
land), 184-185 
James  (Pretender),  295 

Suffolk  House  (Southwark),  21 

Suffolk  Place,  21,  73 

Sunderland,  198 

Swing,  Captain,  296 

Sysson,  Mr.,  77 


Talbot,  William,  Bishop  of  Durham, 
186-187 

Ternewathelan,  Lake,  250 

Teviotdale,  252 

Thomas,  Archbishop  of  York,  I,  7 

Thomson,  William,  Archbishop  of 
York,  96 

Thoresby,  John   de.    Archbishop   of 
York,  49 
Ralph,  50 

Thornhill  (near  Dewsbury),  31 

Thorp  Christchurch  (Bishopthorpe), 
32 

Thorp-juxta  -  Eboracum  (Bishop- 
thorpe), 32 

Thorp,  St.  Andrew    (Bishopthorpe), 

32.  36,  41 

Thorp-super-Usam,  32 

Thorpe  (near  Peterborough),  226 

Thurlow,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Durham, 
191 

Thurstan,  Archbishop  of  York,  118 

Tikhill,  Roger  de,  211,  212 

Todenham  (Gloucestershire),  262 

Toft  Hill,  202 

Towton,  Battle  of,  140 

Trevor,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Durham, 
185,  189-190,  233-234 

Tunstall,  Cuthbert,  Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham, 128,  154-164,  217-221 

Turpin,  Dick,  90 

Turpyn,  Nicholas,  164 

Tynedale  Robbers,  153,  157 

Tynemouth,  Priors  of,  29,  152 

Tyrconnell,  Lord,  15 


U 


UcHTRED    (Uhtred),   Earl    of  Nor- 
thumbria,  104,  105,  203 


Ussher,  James,    Bishop   of  Carlisle, 
246,  282-286 

V 

Valence,  Aymer  de,  246 
Van  Mildert,  William,  Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham, 195,  232,  234 
Venables,  Canon,  259 
Vernon.     See  Harcourt 
Victoria,  Queen  of  England,  95 
Vienne,  Council  of,  43 
Villiers,  Montagu,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

304,  305 
Bishop  of  Durham, 

187 
Vipont,  Thomas  de,  Bishop  of  Car- 
lisle, 247 

W 

Wakefield,  27,  31 

Walcher,  Bishop  of  Durham,  8,  iii- 

Waldby,  Robert,  Archbishop  of  York, 

54 

Waldegrave,  Samuel,  Bishop  of  Car- 
lisle, 304,  305 

Walker,  Mr.,  30 

Walpole,  Horace,  90,  92 

Walter  the  Glazier  (Auckland),  21 1 

Waltham  Abbey,  116,  117 

Waltheof,  Earl  of  Northumbria,  112- 

"4 

Warbeck,  Perkin,  143-144,  238 

Warkworth,  139 

Warwick  Castle,  60 

Earl  of.     See  Neville 

Watling  Street,  202 

Watson,  Dr.,  Dean  of  Durham,  164 

Waugh,  John,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  296 

Wear,  River,  201 

Weardale,  199,  202 

Wearmouth,  155 

Wellesley,  Arthur,  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton, 195-196 

Wellington,  Duke  of.     Sec  Wellesley 

Welton,  Gilbert  de.  Bishop  of  Car- 
lisle, 254,  256, 257 

Wentworth,  Barbara,  72 

Thomas,  Earl   of  Straf- 
ford, 281,  282, 283 

Wesley,  John,  194 

West  Auckland.    See  Auckland 


INDEX 


321 


Westminster,  17,  50,  284 

St.  Margaret's  Church, 

90 
Westmorland,  Earl  of.     See  Neville 
Wetheral,  244 
Whalley,  Mr.,  26 
Wharton,  Sir  Thomas,  271 
Whelpdale,  Roger,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

264 
Whickham,  199 
Whitburn,  Rectory  of,  187 
White,   Francis,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 
281 

Dr.  John,  281 

Colonel  Walter,  83-84 

White  Battle  of  Myton,  44 
Whitehall,  33,  62,  73 
Whitehead,  Dean,  162 
Whittingham,  Dean  of  Durham,  165 
Wickwaine,  William,   Archbishop  of 

York,  40-41 
Wilfrid,  St.,  7 
Williamson,  Secretary,  229 
William  I.,  King  of  England,  8,  106, 
107-110,  113,  115 

II.,  King  of  England,  116, 

236 

the  Lion,  King  of  Scotland, 

125,  237,  244 
Williams,  John,  Archbishop  of  York, 

83 
Willoughby,  Lord,  80 
Wills,  General,  295 
Wilson,  Bishop  of  Sodor  and  Man, 

12,  13 
Winceby,  16 
Winchester,  112,  119 
Wolfe,  Mr.,  192-193 


Wolsey,  Thomas,  Cardinal,  3,  18-20, 
21-22,  24,  67- 
70,148-149,214- 
215,  216,  267, 
269 
— Bishop  of  Durham, 

151-154 
Bishop     of     Win- 
chester, 153 
Wolsingham,  182,  199 
Woodville.     See  Elizabeth  Woodville 
Wright,  Robert,  149 

James  (Architect),  195,  234 

Wyatt's  Rebellion,  275 


Yelverton,  Sir  Christopher,  25 
York,  Archbishops  of,  17-22 

City,  45,  103 

Sack  of,  by  William  I., 

108-110 

Siege  of,  85 

Duchess    of.       See    Mary     of 

Modena 

Duke  of.     See  Stuart 

•  Grammar  School,  73 

Minster,  47,  51,  56,  85,  88,  95 

Truce  of,  245 

"  York  House,"  21 
York  Palace,  i,  53,  58,  74 
York  Place,  18-22,  33,  67,  73 
Young,  Thomas,  Archbishop  of  York, 
75-76 


ZOUCHE,    William,    Archbishop    of 
York,  7,  47-49 


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